Eleven people have been hospitalised with typhoid. Photo/File
Eleven people have been hospitalised with typhoid. Photo/File
Eleven members of an Auckland Pacific Island church community have been hospitalised with typhoid.
Auckland Regional Public Health Service announced on Friday there had been an outbreak of the disease and yesterday said tests confirmed an 11th person had typhoid.
Meanwhile the organisation is also warning schools about a mumps outbreak which has seen 39 people fall ill this year.
Healthline fielded more than 60 calls related to typhoid over the weekend and, of those, about 15 people described symptoms similar to typhoid and were told to see their GP or go to the emergency department.
Auckland Regional Public Health Service clinical director Dr Julia Peters said all the confirmed cases were linked to a Pacific Island church community in Auckland. Staff were following up with 60 other people who had been in contact with the group, she said.
"It is a localised outbreak," Peters said. "Knowing that the cases are connected gives us a clear direction but this is still a serious situation and we are following up other connections."
Auckland got about 30 cases of typhoid a year but they were usually individual cases where someone had been infected overseas.
"This is a local outbreak and at this stage we do not know how or when it got into Auckland."
Peters said the public health service was trying to find the source but it was not always possible because some people could carry the disease for some time without passing it on.
Those hospitalised were said to be from Mt Roskill, Blockhouse Bay and Manurewa.
Healthline spokesman Calvin Cochran said the service received a flood of calls after the news broke on Friday but it had quietened down since then. Most of the calls had come from people in South Auckland, he said.
Typhoid is spread primarily through food and water but could be spread person to person. Good hand-washing was one of the best means of protecting yourself.
Symptoms include a high fever developing over several days, headaches, general weakness and muscle aches. Stomach pain and constipation were also common but some people got diarrhoea.
Typhoid is a serious illness and is potentially fatal but can be treated with antibiotics.
Anyone with those symptoms should see their doctor or an after-hours clinic, or call Healthline on 0800 611 116.
Mumps
Parents are being urged to make sure their children are vaccinated against mumps. Photo/File
Auckland Regional Public Health Service is also warning schools, students and parents of a mumps outbreak in Auckland with 39 people infected since the start of the year.
Most of those affected were from West Auckland and ranged from 5 months old to 51 years old - more than half were students aged 10 to 19 years.
In a letter sent to schools Medical Officer of Health Dr Michael Hale urged parents to check with their doctors to ensure MMR vaccinations were up-to-date. Vaccinations were free and were the best way to protect against the mumps, he said.
Mumps could spread quickly so a single child with mumps at secondary school could cause an outbreak because immunity in that age group was well below the national average.
"If parents do not organise vaccination quickly, their children's learning could be disrupted. We are in the midst of an outbreak and already large numbers of students are scrambling to catch up on school work after falling ill with mumps for several weeks," Hale said.
Most people recovered from mumps, but it could have serious complications. Although rare, it could cause infertility, inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain (meningitis), inflamed testicles or ovaries and deafness.
