Officials back bug response
Hawke’s Bay medical officer defends DHB, saying its actions saved people’s health
Health officials in Hawke’s Bay yesterday defended their handling of Havelock North’s water contamination, rejecting claims they were too slow to respond.
“If people think that we were sitting around watching numbers of people getting ill and not doing anything, they are seriously incorrect,” Hawke’s Bay District Health Board Medical Officer of Health Dr Nick Jones said.
Labour’s Annette King this week criticised the time it had taken authorities to respond.
But Jones yesterday outlined water-quality monitoring practices, and provided a timeline of actions.
Tests were conducted on the town’s two bores twice a week.
Although an indication of any harmful presence was provided after 24 hours, 48 hours were needed for a confirmed result.
The test on Tuesday last week returned both a negative indicator and negative result. A test taken on Thursday returned a positive indicator on Friday just before 10am.
That same day hundreds of pupils stayed home from school with vomiting and diarrhoea.
The DHB, which was aware of a small number of positive samples for campylobacter, sent an email before 1pm on Friday requesting a meeting with Hastings District Council at 2pm.
By 3pm it was decided to chlorinate the water supply.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule was not part of these discussions — he was told of the situation at 2.30pm by chief executive Ross McLeod, who was alerted just after midday.
The DHB sent out a media statement about 6.30pm that night.
Jones said the DHB’s response exceeded national drinking water standards requirements. “It is a major decision to put the reputation of a water supply at risk when you don’t have absolutely convincing evidence that there is a problem.”
Eighty per cent of the time samples showing a presence turned out not to be significant. However, Jones said the DHB felt “sufficiently concerned”.
“I am absolutely convinced that has saved a lot of people’s health.”
Based on a telephone survey of 254 households, the DHB estimated 3348 Havelock North people were affected, out of 13,000 in the Hastings suburb.
DHB chief executive Kevin Snee said the number of patients appeared to have levelled off. One person remained in Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s intensive care unit.
The test result from a person who died was not yet available.
The notice to boil water remained in place in case cryptosporidium was present but it was so far undetected.
Water services manager Brett Chapman said testing showed reticulated water was clean but one bore still showed contamination.
Yule said the council was working with the Government on guidelines for an inquiry.