New vaccinations on offer for NZ kids

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NEW Zealand babies are being offered free immunisations against a severe gastric bug.

THE oral rotavirus vaccination will be given to babies at six weeks, three months and five months.

The vaccine is being added to the national immunisation schedule from Tuesday. Chickenpox vaccines are now also available for free for children most at risk with reduced immune systems. Health professionals had hoped the chickenpox jab would be offered to all, but government drug funding body Pharmac decided it wasn’t viable at this time. The new schedule also includes an improved version of the pneumococcal vaccine, which protects against three more strains of the disease. Rotavirus is a highly infectious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhoea and can result in severe dehydration. About 90 per cent of New Zealand children contract rotavirus by the age of three, with research showing it hospitalises one in 52 Kiwi kids. Originally published as New vaccinations on offer for NZ kids