Gastro bug hits Nelson campers
"That is I guess almost to be expected for that many people camping in one place." DOC Nelson Lakes operations manager John Wotherspoon
Several cases of gastro illnesses have struck campers in Nelson, including at the popular Totaranui site in Golden Bay.
DOC Nelson Lakes operations manager John Wotherspoon said yesterday that there had been a case of concern at the popular Totaranui campground in the Abel Tasman National Park.
A person had symptoms very similar to the suspected norovirus outbreak in the Nelson Lakes last week, he said.
Wotherspoon said there was also anecdotal evidence of another group of campers becoming ill and leaving the site which accommodates up to 870 guests.
‘‘That is I guess almost to be expected for that many people camping in one place.’’
Wotherspoon said the campground management at Totaranui had stepped up their hygiene and cleaning routine, using a strong bleach solution to disinfect facilities twice a day.
All campers turning up at Totaranui were given pamphlets informing them about the potential risk of getting sick, Wotherspoon said.
He said he had also heard of other people in Kahurangi National Park getting sick in the Granity Pass and Tableland areas.
Since the last weekend of 2016, the Department of Conservation had identified 36 people who were vomiting and had diarrhoea after staying in huts along the TraversSabine Circuit, a popular tramping track in Nelson Lakes National Park.
Wotherspoon said DOC was not describing the cases of illness outside Travers-Sabine as an outbreak, but ‘‘it’s best to assume’’ the suspected norovirus had spread to more places than they currently knew of. This was because of the time it took for information about people falling ill to get from the huts to the department, he said.
‘‘If people have been ill, we want them out of the back country and we don’t want them to go in again until at least several days or longer [after they are better].’’
There were a lot of campers at this time of year moving from area to area following the good weather, he said.
‘‘So there’s a fair amount of potential for cross-contamination between one sort of site and one sort of set of huts and another I guess.
Wotherspoon said there was an incubation period of 48 hours after the symptoms disappeared in which people were still contagious. He encouraged people to be vigilant with their hygiene.