Promoting and supporting influenza immunisation

This website and the national annual influenza promotional campaign is brought to you by The Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) and the National Influenza Strategy Group (NISG).

2019 Flu Kit Booklet now available for download

Distribution of this year’s Flu Kit to immunisation providers began on 20 March 2019. If you have not received a Flu kit by March 29th, please contact us by email at influenza@auckland.ac.nz.
Please DON'T contact our 0800 line about the Flu Kit, we are extremely busy with clinical calls during this period. 

While waiting for your hard copy of the Flu Kit to arrive, have a look at our electronic copy.

Click here to download a pdf of the 2019 Flu Kit Booklet.

Please note: An erratum has been published for the Flu Kit Booklet 2019. To view the erratum please click here.

Click here to download a pdf of the 2019 Flu Kit Booklet references.

2019 Influenza Immunisation Programme

Start date

From 2019, the annual Influenza Immunisation Programme will start from 1 April each year, subject to influenza vaccine being available for distribution from then. In previous years, the programme started as soon as the influenza vaccine became available, generally by early March. The change to a fixed start date of 1 April is intended to ensure that the vaccine remains as effective as possible during the peak incidence of influenza, which in recent years has occurred in late winter.

For further information, refer to the  Ministry's policy statement on the annual Influenza Immunisation Programme start date.

Goals

  • Vaccinate 75% of the population aged 65 years or older against influenza annually
  • Improve influenza immunisation coverage for people aged under 65 years with certain medical conditions, and pregnant women
  • Improve influenza immunisation uptake for healthcare workers
  • 80% of healthcare workers are vaccinated against influenza annually
  • Distribute more than 1.2 million influenza vaccine doses annually, i.e. protect more than 25% of the community

Important Information

Zostavax® and annual influenza vaccination

  • Annual influenza immunisation is recommended and funded for adults aged 65 years or over.
  • One Zostavax® is recommended for adults aged 65 years to under 80 years. This dose is also funded.
    • Zostavax® and influenza vaccine can be administered at the same visit.
    • Zostavax® is only given as a single dose – it IS NOT administered every year that an eligible adult receives their influenza vaccination.

Funded influenza vaccines for 2019:

INFLUVAC® TETRA (quadrivalent)

  • Claims for funded influenza vaccines given before 1 April will not be accepted.
  • Funded if administered to eligible adults and children aged 3 years or older, from 1 April through 31 December.
  • Deliveries are expected to begin in time for the Programme start date of 1 April 2019.

FLUARIX® TETRA (quadrivalent)

  • Expected to be available from mid-April 2019.
  • Funded if administered to eligible children aged under 3 years, i.e. 6–35 months, from 1 April through 31 December.

The influenza strains included in the 2019 quadrivalent vaccines are the:

  • A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1) pdm09-like virus
  • A/Switzerland/8060/2017 (H3N2)-like virus
  • B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus
  • B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus

Resources

The online Resources order form is available on the Resources page.

Please order the following resources from HealthEd (www.healthed.govt.nz):

  • After your child is immunised (HE1504),
  • After your immunisation (HE2505) for teenagers and adults, and
  • Immunisation during pregnancy (HE2503).

These HealthEd resources replace the After your flu immunisation leaflet and Avoid flu during pregnancy brochure used in previous years. The National Immunisation Register leaflet (HE2423) for adults is also ordered from HealthEd.

Other Influenza Immunisation Programme resources will be available to order through the Resources page on this website from around mid-March.

Vaccine ordering

  • Influenza vaccine ordering is handled by Healthcare Logistics (HCL).
    • Online ordering at www.hcl.co.nz is preferred.
    • A printable order form is available below.
  • Pre-orders for influenza vaccines can be placed from 1 March 2019.
  • Please do not organise clinics before your vaccine stock has arrived. The Influenza Immunisation Programme starts from 1 April.

 Influenza vaccine form for faxed or emailed orders. Online ordering is preferred. Faxed or emailed orders incur a manual order processing fee of $10 per order.

Minimum order requirements
The total influenza vaccine order must meet minimum quantities as follows:

March April May June July Aug-Dec
Min 60 doses Min 60 doses Min 60 doses Min 30 doses Min 20 doses Min 10 doses

Influenza vaccination precaution

Influenza vaccination may be contraindicated or need to be delayed for people receiving any of the following four cancer treatments: 

  • atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ®),
  • ipilimumab (YERVOY®),
  • nivolumab (OPDIVO®) 
  • pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA®)

These are the only four cancer treatements in New Zealand that require influenza vaccination to be delayed.

The immune-stimulant actions of these treatments on the immune system increase a person’s risk of developing autoimmune conditions. It is not known whether receipt of an influenza vaccine whilst receiving these treatments or for up to six months after treatment increases a theoretical risk of triggering the occurrence of these side effects. Please contact the person’s oncologist or 0800 IMMUNE (0800 466 863) for current advice about influenza vaccination for these people BEFORE administering the vaccine.