The typhoid outbreak in Auckland is spreading, and has claimed a life:
Woman dies in Auckland after contracting typhoid, 15 cases now confirmed
Health authorities are being slammed after waiting until after a woman died to notify the public about a typhoid outbreak.
Fifteen cases have now been confirmed to be linked to the outbreak, with two other probable cases awaiting further tests.
The woman, from Auckland’s Mt Roskill, died in Auckland City Hospital last Tuesday.
…
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said there were “probably some communications issues” that the health service needed to take on board regarding the delay in releasing information. “I think they should be communicating very clearly with people on issues,” he said. …
Typhoid is a disease of poor sanitation and contamination, it is exacerbated by overcrowding, and usually associated with poor / “developing” countries. Stuff has a bit of basic information up here: The causes, symptoms and cures of typhoid fever
Now would be a good time to reflect on NZ’s generally poor record on child poverty and disease. From 2011:
Shock look at NZ’s child poverty
More than 100 New Zealand children who died last year would probably have survived had they lived in Japan, Sweden or the Czech Republic, a new documentary shows.
In Inside Child Poverty: A Special Report, set to air this week, Wellington documentary maker Bryan Bruce shows a Swedish doctor footage of sick, scab-ridden schoolchildren suffering from preventable diseases in Porirua and asks if he saw similar situations in his country.
The doctor shakes his head: “In the 70s, maybe.”
Last year, more than 25,000 children were admitted to hospital for respiratory infections. Doctors routinely treat cases of rheumatic fever and scabies – diseases now rare in Europe.
The reason behind these preventable diseases were appalling rates of child poverty that New Zealand could not afford to ignore, Mr Bruce said. …
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