The latest quarterly results for the Government’s immunisation health target shows five district health boards, Wairarapa, Hawke’s Bay, MidCentral, Lakes and Southern, have reached the 95 per cent result.

Waikato District Health Board did not use social networking sites to encourage teenagers to get immunised without their parents' consent following a measles outbreak in Te Awamutu last year.

Communications director Mary Anne Gill said Waikato DHB used Facebook and other social networking sites to encourage teenagers to discuss with their parents and whanau whether they had been immunised.

Te Awamutu mother Ally Edwards-Lasenby thought she was doing the right thing by making an informed decision not to immunise her son against Measles at four years of age.

It was at a time when there was a lot of speculation about the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causing autism later in life.

Only 495 extra children who are about to turn two need to be immunised before 30 June for New Zealand to achieve the 95 percent immunisation coverage recommended by the World Health Organization this quarter.

Plunket says National Immunisation Week, which kicks off on Monday, is a wonderful opportunity to promote the importance of immunisation to communities throughout New Zealand.

Plunket clinical advisor Alison Hussey says immunisation is a vitally important tool to protect New Zealand families and communities.

Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew urges New Zealanders most at risk from serious influenza complications to get their free immunisation from today.

A vaccine for shingles will soon be available, in limited supply, to New Zealanders.

The number of measles cases has been on the rise in the Counties Manukau district during the past few weeks. Officials are urging residents to take health warnings seriously and get their children immunised.

The number of parents who deliberately choose not to immunise their children is steadily dropping.

The FREE Meningococcal C Vaccination programme has seen 27,000 eligible young Northlanders vaccinated against this serious disease.

Northland DHB’s publicly funded meningococcal programme continues, aiming to vaccinate 85% of the 44,000 Northlanders aged 12 months to up to 20 years of age against Meningococcal C disease.

A mass vaccination campaign in Northland aimed at immunising up to 38,000 people aged 1-20 against meningococcal C has been boosted with the use of text messaging. Manaia PHO and Te Tai Tokerau PHO are using Vensa Health's TXT2Remind patient practise text-messaging system in Northland as part of the emergency response immunisation campaign. The system was installed across all 36 general practices in August.

A 13th case of meningococcal since July has occurred in Northland.

With the recent confirmation of people becoming infected with the measles in the Bay of Plenty, early protection is being encouraged by the Medical Officer of Health.

A vaccine developed for malaria has been trialled on infants in Africa with favourable results.

Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service has been on high alert for measles because of the current outbreak in New Zealand, which has been mainly in Auckland, Waikato and Hawkes Bay areas.

Auckland Regional Public Health Service can report that 24 new cases of measles across the Auckland region have been confirmed since last Tuesday.

Aucklanders are being asked to take extra precautions and to ensure they are fully immunised against measles as the number of people diagnosed with the disease in the region continues to grow.

Canterbury District Health Board’s Community and Public Health Division has been notified of a confirmed case of measles in Christchurch.

Whether you are against politicians helping Pharma loot our health care dollars or mandatory medicine, Texas Governor Rick Perry's facilitation of Merck's Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, has angered Repubicans and Democrats alike.