Typhoid death kept quiet

Health authorities are being criticised after waiting days after a woman died to tell the public and her family about a typhoid outbreak.

The woman, from Auckland’s Mt Roskill, died in Auckland City Hospital on Tuesday last week. Family spokesman Jerome Mika said yesterday that the woman’s family were unaware about the cause of death until they were advised in a media release seven days later. The health service told the public of the outbreak three days after her death, on Friday. Her funeral took place on Monday.

The woman was not cordoned off in hospital, and family members and children visited 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 it had handled her death.

Mika said though the death certificate stated she died from salmonella typhi, not even the undertaker was aware she had suffered 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 it was a ‘‘whole different denomination’’ to the one named by health officials as being at the centre of the typhoid outbreak.

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 clinical director Dr Julia Peters said the woman had serious health issues and the typhoid infection was another complicating factor. The Auckland Regional Public Health Service delayed announcing the death to enable funeral arrangements to be concluded, she said.