A mistake made by Hamilton health staff has affected more than 36,000 vaccines - and possibly spoiling them.
Of particular concern are 3000 meningococcal B immunisations, urgently needed following an outbreak in Christchurch. And it has health advocates worried.
The meningococcal vaccine is a life-saving jab and right now for parts of the country it's in critical demand.
"To hear that we've lost another 3000 vaccines is really disturbing," said Meningitis Foundation chairman Gerard Rushton.
And untimely because in the past two days, there've been two cases of the disease reported in Christchurch. Both are University of Canterbury students, both 18 years old.
Pharmac has just begun funding the meningococcal B vaccine to all babies under the age of one and those in close living quarters like halls of residence.
"We've even got one university who made an application to get some more vaccines this Tuesday just been, and were told there were none to be supplied," Rushton said.
The revelation came as no surprise to the Meningitis Foundation, which met with Health New Zealand last Thursday, alerting them to vaccine supply issues in Canterbury.
Rushton said Te Whatu Ora denied there was any shortage. He said it's not the first time something like this has happened.
"We thought we'd learnt our lesson last year where we wasted 1.7 million worth of meningitis vaccines because they expired and here we go, it happens again," he said.
On Friday Pharmac admitted there have been supply challenges after human error caused a refrigerated vaccine store in Hamilton to go "outside the required temperature range" - affecting 36,000 vaccines of different varieties.
"We are confident we have enough meningococcal vaccine in the country to meet demand, there may be some delays in distributing it around the country due to internal logistics," said Lisa Williams, Pharmac's director of operations.
But Rushton said it's not good enough.
"We're continually told by health professionals, immunologists, that an epidemic of meningitis is inevitable, it's just a matter of when and not if, so an event like this here - if next week we have a break out like Northland a few years ago it is really crucial."
And he's urging those young, and old to check their immunisation status - his daughter Courtenay passed away from the illness in 2014.
"Every time you see one of these cases it's really gut-wrenching because you know what the families going to be going through," he said.
Unthinkable pain that could be avoided with more awareness and a more readily available vaccine.
