Woman died before typhoid made public

Health authorities are being slammed after waiting until after a woman died to notify the public and the family about a typhoid outbreak.

The woman, from Auckland’s Mt Roskill, died in Auckland City Hospital last Tuesday.

Family spokesman Jerome Mika said yesterday afternoon that the woman’s family were unaware as to the cause of her death until they were advised in a media release seven days later.

The health service notified the public of the outbreak three days after her death, on Friday. Her funeral took place on Monday.

The woman was not cordoned off while in hospital, and family members and children came to visit her without any kind of precautions, Mika said.

He said the ‘‘family, extended family and church family’’ were disappointed with the Ministry of Health for the way they had handled her death.

‘‘It has created a lot of uncertainty,’’ he said.

Mika said that although her death certificate stated she died from salmonella typhi, not even the undertaker was aware that she had been suffering from an infectious disease.

Members of her immediate and extended family were now being tested for the disease, he said.

He confirmed that the woman attended a Samoan AOG church in the Mt Albert area, but said that it was a ‘‘whole different denomination’’ to the one named.

Fifteen cases have now been confirmed to be linked to the outbreak, with two other probable cases awaiting further tests.

Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) clinical director Dr Julia Peters said the woman had serious health issues and the typhoid infection was another complicating factor.

Peters had said the woman was a member of the Mt Roskill Samoan Assembly of God church at the centre of the outbreak of typhoid.

Peters said the service was working with the church to trace other people who may be infected.

‘‘We are doing this while they are mourning the loss of one of their own,’’ she said.

Peters said the service delayed announcing the death to enable funeral arrangements to be concluded.

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. ‘‘I think it would be good to release information in a timely and appropriate manner, but there may be reasons why they didn’t release it sooner.’’

Labour’s health spokesman David Clark said he was concerned the public was not notified about the outbreak until three days after the woman died.

‘‘I’m concerned that there hasn’t been a public campaign to make sure people have the information they need to protect themselves,’’ he said.

‘‘It feels to me like this all should have happened much sooner and much quicker.

‘‘There’s no telling how many other people those infected have come in contact with, in that short space of time before it was publicly notified . . . the slowness really has been the main concern so far.’’

Labour’s Pacific Island Affairs spokesman Su’a William Sio said he had not been told of the outbreak by officials, and instead was notified by a member of the community.

He had to contact the Counties Manukau District Health Board himself to get confirmation of the number of cases.

Sio had ‘‘serious concerns’’ about the lack of information provided by authorities, he said.

‘‘I was told by one clinic that they didn’t get the normal alert [about the outbreak] that they would normally get, but then other clinics have said that they got the alert last week. That information hasn’t filtered down to the community level . . . people don’t know what they don’t know.’’

Sio said news of the outbreak had caused grave concerns for many members of the community.

‘‘The word ‘typhoid’ is not a word that is readily understood by many people.

‘‘We need timely information and that hasn’t been forthcoming.’’

Labour leader Andrew Little said members of the public were entitled to know about the outbreak earlier than they had been.

‘‘If there is a fatality as a result, they should have told us.’’