PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

children’. 137 Moreover, Milne, inspite of his established reputation overseas, was not
respected by the Health Department and the CDCAC, and they did not respond well
‘to a non-medical man telling them what to do’. 138 Although Muraskin and Webb-
Pullman’s assessments were likely to be fairly accurate, it should also be pointed out
that, as has been previously demonstrated, the Health Department was very protracted
in updating its ideas. 139 It would have taken considerable time for the Department to
adjust its views and accept that hepatitis B was a general problem in New Zealand,
and not one that was confined to drug users and homosexuals as in other countries
such as Britain and the United States. Nevertheless, other reasons were offered for the
Department’s procrastination. Neil Pearce, Lecturer in Epidemiology at the
Wellington Clinical School of Medicine and a member of the HBCT commented, ‘[i]t
is hard to tell when someone [in the Department of Health] is slow because of caution
versus they [simply] did not want to do something. [But] I think it was they did not
want to do it’. 140
Because the Department refused to acknowledge the problem and help, the people of
Kawerau decided to ‘go it alone’ and raise funding for the immunisations themselves.
Milne and his team organised many meetings to explain the hepatitis B problem to the
community and the benefits of immunisation for their children. Immunisation cost
$20 per child, including costs of pre-screening for hepatitis B, the vaccine and the
needles. Nurses offered their services for free to give the injections. With no cases of
hepatitis B in children in Kawerau after the immunisations took place, the scheme was
extended within the Eastern Bay of Plenty and many areas were involved in fund-
raising. Communities were angry that the government would not fund the scheme
when there was such a glaring need. Eru Pomare, professor at the Wellington Clinical
School of Medicine and a prominent Maori, pointed out that, ‘There was a strong
feeling that if the problem of hepatitis was as serious as the Bay of Plenty statistics
suggested, then the Health Department must come forward and support the
programme financially as the strain on poor Maori families was great’. 141
137
W. Muraskin, ‘Bucking the Health Establishment’, p.214.
138
ibid.
139
This was evident with the introduction of the triple vaccine in the 1950s and with meningococcal
meningitis A vaccine in the 1980s.
140
W. Muraskin, ‘Bucking the Health Establishment’, p.214.
141
E. Pomare, Hepatitis B. Report to the Minister of Health on the Eastern Bay of Plenty immunisation
programme, Wellington, 1985, p.15.
226