PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

ate. In these places BCG should be used for ‘at risk’ groups, such as babies and
adolescents, in areas where the incidence of tuberculosis was high. 105 Before the
1970s districts themselves decided whether to vaccinate ‘at risk’ babies and
preschoolers. Hutt Health District had been vaccinating Maori babies with BCG since
1958. 106 By the 1970s the selective BCG policy had become established with all
districts identifying those babies ‘at risk’. Neonates were usually immunised in
hospital within the first week of life and all Maori and Pacific Island mothers were
offered BCG for their babies. European mothers could request the vaccine if they so
wished.
Although the Health Department was implementing WHO recommendations, it was
identified in New Zealand that racial groups, not specific age groups, were ‘at risk’
and hence should be targeted for vaccination. It had been found that ‘the Maori child
is more than five times as likely as the European child and the Pacific Islander child is
more than 50 times as likely as the European child, to contract tuberculosis’. 107 An
article in the Auckland Star, which focused on the neonate programme, misquoted Dr
G. B. Collison, the Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Auckland, by reporting that
a compulsory BCG programme for Pacific Islanders was being given consideration.
This was condemned as ‘racial discrimination’ by groups such as Halt All Racist
Tours (HART) and the Citizens Association for Racial Equality (CARE) who
believed it would be better to immunise all children. 108
Policies such as these did leave the Department open to criticism that programmes
were being conducted along racial lines. However, apart from the occasional
comment, the neonate BCG programme was accepted by the majority of mothers. In
1974, a total of 1081 babies were vaccinated at the participating hospitals of
Wellington, St Helens and Kerepuru. 109 In Auckland, from July to December 1976,
105
‘Policy for B.C.G. Vaccination’ 12 December 1962, H1 246/64 34419, BCG Vaccination 1956-69,
ANZ, Wellington.
106
M. C. Laing to DGH, 21 September 1964, H1 246/64 34419, ANZ, Wellington.
107
‘B.C.G. Vaccination of At Risk Neonates’, BAAK A358 131a Tuberculosis - BCG and Tuberculin
testing 1958-68, 1970-74, ANZ, Auckland.
108
Auckland Star (AS), 18 March 1976. HART was New Zealand’s anti-apartheid movement and was
especially visible in protests at the 1981 Springbok tour. CARE’s brief was to oppose racial prejudice
in all forms, both in New Zealand and overseas.
109
‘BCG Vaccinations of Neonates in the Wellington and Porirua Districts 1974 at Wellington Public
Hospital, St. Helens and Kenepuru Hospitals’, 23 January 1975, BAAK A358 131a, ANZ, Auckland.
220