Vaccination drive to up Pacific immunity before winter

In preparation for the winter season a Pacific health organisation has been holding vaccination drives in Tāmaki Makaurau aimed at pushing the importance of getting immunised against circulating diseases.

Those being Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR), the flu and Covid-19 which are all highly contagious diseases that can potentially cause long term health defects.

Etu Pasifika Auckland (EPA) has held vaccination clinics at their Mt Wellington base on Saturdays as a means to help Pacific families get familiar with a health provider that fronts their needs while educating people on the necessary proactive steps to illness prevention.

With the first vaccination drive having started at the beginning of April, and over 40 people received immunisation, EPA saw this as a “successful day” and an opportunity to connect with Pacific communities.

Nursing Director for EPA Falena Prouting spoke on Pacific Mornings about their upcoming immunisation event taking place this Saturday in Mt Wellington.

Prouting says it’s about ensuring urban-Pacific families have accessibility to healthcare that is needs-specific.

“For us as an organisation we want to create a lot of awareness. Our Pacific families are big families and we have a lot of families. We want to protect each other, that’s our main focus this year.”

EPA says the event is for everyone from registered patients to walk-ins and their goal is to have as many Pacific families in Tāmaki Makaurau to make use of these free immunisations.

“Covid scared a lot of our Pacific people. We’re creating a lot of awareness now and our families are slowly coming back to the clinic and having their children immunised and also the elderly. Definitely but slowly getting back on track.”

Watch the full interview with Falena Prouting below and more information about Etu Pasifika can be found here.