Schools in Northland are being encouraged by the District Health Board to keep unvaccinated children at home as concern over measles reaches new heights.
The Ministry of Education believes schools shouldn't keep kids away unless they actually have measles.
However, Northland DHB Chief Executive Dr Nick Chamberlain disagrees.
"I'm really concerned about measles, it’s an incredibly dangerous disease. Certainly, a high illness rate with a number of people with measles getting hospitalised," Dr Chamberlain told TVNZ1's Breakfast.
"In Northland we have a low immunisation rate and I'm trying to look to various strategies to protect the population, particularly our young children."
Northland schools asked to consider excluding unvaccinated children
Mr Chamberlain has urged principals around Northland to send children home immediately if they display any sort of symptoms including a cough, in hopes to prevent anything spreading.
However, with a change of seasons, having a cough could be every child but Mr Chamberlain says, "those are the early stages of measles … and we don’t want any children to get it".
Mr Chamberlain claims immunisations around the world saves millions of lives a year and that it’s the most effective public health measure, despite what many Northlanders have to say about vaccines.
"I'm sure I’ll receive some aggressive correspondence over my stance here but really I don’t care, because this is about our children.
"There’s always been a low immunisation rate, but we are working very hard … that is our responsibility."
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