Havelock North gastro outbreak prompts in-depth HRC study

Hawke's Bay DHB medical officer of health Dr Nicholas Jones will lead a new collaborative study into the Havelock North campylobacter water contamination. Photo / File

A new in-depth analysis of last year's Havelock North gastro outbreak has received government funding, with the aim of helping health officials, local authorities and communities be better prepared for any such outbreaks in the future.

Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) chief executive Professor Kath McPherson yesterday announced $437,949 would be invested in the research programme.

The HRC was the agency responsible for managing the Government's investment in health research and Professor McPherson said this special funding allocation was awarded due to the significance of New Zealand's largest water-supply contamination event.

She said it was important to take the opportunity to learn from it so it didn't happen again.

"Or at the very least that we can respond much quicker to greatly lessen the impact on people's health," she said.

The research would bring together experts from across the health and academic sectors to support the region, and was expected to take about two years.

Hawke's Bay DHB medical officer of health Dr Nicholas Jones would lead the programme with Professor Michael Baker from the University of Otago's Department of Public Health in Wellington.

Lead investigators included Dr Brent Gilpin, Dr Jillian Sherwood, Dr Claire Newbern and Dr Mehnaz Adnan from ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research), Dr Tiffany Walker, Dr Colin Hutchinson and Dr Tim Frendin from Hawke's Bay DHB, and Dr Jonathan Marshall from Massey University.

Dr Anita Jagroop-Dearing from Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) would manage the research.

Various aspects of the outbreak would be covered including the public health sector's response to it, the longer-term health effects of the outbreak, and non-traditional early warning detection tools that could have potentially helped public health professionals identify the outbreak sooner.

While the government-appointed inquiry into the event, which was due to report back in December, was also looking at similar issues, Professor McPherson said this programme would take a more expansive approach to collecting and analysing related data.

Dr Jones said that despite Hawke's Bay DHB and local councils having already gathered extensive data on human illness, exposure and risk factors, and drinking water and environmental sources of campylobacter, there was a unique opportunity for further analysis to gain maximum benefit of the data collected.

"Thanks to the HRC's funding, we'll be able to delve further into the detail to gain insights into the health impacts of a gastroenteritis outbreak of this scale, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions and messaging," Dr Jones said.

"All New Zealand communities will benefit from the programme's findings. The results will also be of international interest as documented water supply outbreaks of this size are unusual."