Illness hits Totaranui campers
More 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 its hygiene and cleaning routine, using a strong bleach solution to disinfect facilities twice a day.
All campers arriving at Totaranui were given pamphlets 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 Travers-Sabine circuit 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 to the department.
‘‘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, increasing the potential for cross-contamination, he said.
‘‘What we’re really encouraging people to do is to be really vigilant with their hygiene, take soap with them, be really careful that they wash their hands before preparing food and after going to the toilet.’’