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Speaker 1: Now, more than fifteen thousand young Territorians have now taken

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Speaker 1: advantage of the free manager coggle B vaccines. The program

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Speaker 1: aims to protect kids from a potentially deadly disease and

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Speaker 1: safes families up to one hundred and eighty dollars per vaccine.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to tell us more

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Speaker 1: is NT Health Director of Immunization Policy and Strategy, Heather Parker.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Heather, Good morning, Katie. Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Heather,

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Speaker 1: tell me how many babies have now had the vaccine

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Speaker 1: and then I guess adolescence.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so at the moment, we're looking at over nine

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Speaker 2: thousand children between the ages of six weeks and two

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Speaker 2: years and nearly six thousand adolescents between fourteen and nineteen.

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Speaker 2: And I will say that I think that number is

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Speaker 2: a little bit higher than that. I don't have the

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Speaker 2: up to date two dates numbers, but yeah, we're looking excellent,

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Speaker 2: nearly around sixteen thousand altogether.

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Speaker 1: Is that a good take up in your opinion? No,

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Speaker 1: you sort of please with those numbers.

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Speaker 2: Very please. And actually we did have a cat to

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Speaker 2: the company who's actually assigning the vaccine recently who commented

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Speaker 2: on what an excellent job the territory has done. So

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Speaker 2: very pleased with how it's going. Obviously, we want to

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Speaker 2: see a lot more kids and adolescents taking advantage of this,

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Speaker 2: particularly for the catch up which does end. The catch

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Speaker 2: up program does end at the end of twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 2: so we've got a little bit of a window here

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Speaker 2: to try and get as many kids vaccinated as we can.

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Speaker 1: Heather, has it been rolling out through the schools in

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Speaker 1: terms of the kids that are a bit older, like

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Speaker 1: for the catch up or how has it been working?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so, it certainly has been rolled out within

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Speaker 2: the schools. So as a part of our school based

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Speaker 2: immunization program the Centers for Disease Control who I work with,

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Speaker 2: we've been collaborating with the wonderful primary healthcare team at

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Speaker 2: NTEA Health and just making sure that we run this

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Speaker 2: out to roll without to all the adolescents, so it

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Speaker 2: automatically goes to all the year nine students that'll be ongoing,

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Speaker 2: but we've also been running a blitz program for the

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Speaker 2: years ten to twelve students to make sure we're capturing

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Speaker 2: that catch up cohort of their fifteen to nineteen year

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Speaker 2: olds as well.

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Speaker 1: Now, for those out there listening who may not sort

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Speaker 1: of know how serious meninginger cockle bee can be, for

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Speaker 1: those who aren't vaccinated, I mean, talk us through its.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so look, meninchacoppab it is a it's a rare disease,

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Speaker 2: but it is a very severe disease. And Meninja copple

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Speaker 2: bee is the most common strain in Australia. So we

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Speaker 2: also have Ninja copple ac and w and y, but

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Speaker 2: menintoppole bee is our most common. And so while a

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Speaker 2: lot of the population does carry this bacteria, this meninjucopcal bacteria,

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Speaker 2: when it does invade the system, it does become very

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Speaker 2: severe and very quick very severe, very quickly, and so

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Speaker 2: it's spread by sneezing, coughing, or kissing, and is Once

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Speaker 2: that disease takes hold, it can be very serious and

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Speaker 2: can indeed, it can lead to blood infections, loss of limbs,

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Speaker 2: and even death. So incredibly severe disease.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I mean what are the signs and symptoms

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Speaker 1: for people to look out for as well?

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Speaker 2: Okay, so some of the signs and symptoms are fever, headache,

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Speaker 2: of confusion, and drowsiness, next stiffness, joint pains and a

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Speaker 2: rash that's really important, that rash, a dislike of bright

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Speaker 2: lights and vomiting.

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Speaker 1: Have we had any recent cases and you know, like,

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Speaker 1: how are we going across the territory at the moment.

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Speaker 2: There was actually a recent case in an adolescent in

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Speaker 2: Central Australia. Now luckily enough that the school nurse picked

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Speaker 2: up a note very quickly. He was taken to ed

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Speaker 2: very quickly and treated and that patient did recover and

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Speaker 2: it didn't advance that stage. But it just honestly does

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Speaker 2: demonstrate the importance of this vaccine and making sure we

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Speaker 2: make it available for all of our kids and teenagers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is something I know I've spoken about

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Speaker 1: on the show at different times. We've spoken to the

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Speaker 1: Lawrence family after they lost their little girl, Skyler a

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Speaker 1: number of years ago, and you know, it's an unimaginable

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Speaker 1: loss that that family has gone through. But now to

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Speaker 1: see this immunization program being rolled out more widely across

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, it's a real tribute to the to

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Speaker 1: the raising of awareness that they've done.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely and just goes to show you know, this is

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Speaker 2: real people and real families that this impacts, and the

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Speaker 2: bravery that Sallie and Ash have shown in sharing this

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Speaker 2: story and continuing to share their story as they did

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Speaker 2: on Skyla's Day on October fifteenth, this week, this is

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Speaker 2: what's led to this program. So it's really this is

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Speaker 2: on them, this program, and this program absolutely will save lives.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so true. Now, if where can families go to

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Speaker 1: get their kids vaccinated? If they're listening this morning and

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Speaker 1: they're like, oh, ok, have somehow missed out on the

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Speaker 1: catch up program through school or maybe they don't fall

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Speaker 1: into those age groups that we'd sort of discussed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. So it is available from GPS and participating

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Speaker 2: pharmacies and also the community health centers and so folks

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Speaker 2: that are living in remote areas, the remote health services

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: Well. It's lovely to speak to you this morning, Heather.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Not a problem at all, Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,