A Meningococcal outbreak in Northland has prompted the Government to launch an urgent immunisation programme.

New Zealand has seen an increase in the disease this year with seven deaths and 29 infections.

Ministry of Health director of public health, Caroline McElnay told Mike Hosking they are hoping to vaccinate as many children as possible by Christmas.

"In Northland we are hoping to get 80 percent of the two age groups that we are targeting."

"We haven't set a specific deadline. With vaccination programmes like this it takes two weeks for the vaccine to kick in and be effective, so we want to be timely but we don't have a specific tight deadline, obviously, as many as we can vaccinate before Christmas the better." 

She said having 80 percent of the children vaccinated gives the area a "good coverage".

"What we are doing in Northland is we are targeting those two ages groups for very good reason. The older age group, the adolescent (13 to19-year-olds) are the group that tends to carry the bacteria in their throats, they may not be ill. So that allows transmission of the illness in the community and then the age that is most seriously affected by Meningococcal disease is the under five."

"If you can target both those groups and get good uptake in both those groups then you can very effectively stop the outbreak."

The W strain of Meningococcal disease has been increasing in both New Zealand and around the world.

McElnay said they have been working with Pharmac to monitor the disease and vaccinations.