Welcome to Tuesday’s Hawke’s Bay District Health Board Update 23 August 2016.
Hospital admissions remain the same today with seven people in Hawke’s Bay Hospital and one patient being cared for in the Intensive Care Unit, who has had campylobacter but has needed further intensive care for an unrelated medical issue.
General Practices and district nurses are advising the district health board they believe the situation is settling.
More than 4000 people have been affected by the outbreak. Today’s confirmed cases of campylobacter are 171 probable 379 taking it to a total of 550.
Chief executive, Dr Kevin Snee, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board said extra surveillance was in place for two other bugs that have a longer incubation time than campylobacter - cryptosporidium and giardia. Giardia has an incubation time of up to 21 days and will have been killed by the chlorine and the boil water notice was put in place to kill cryptosporidium, which has an incubation period of up to 20 days.
Dr Snee said the good news was we have only seen the bug in a small proportion of faecal specimens but we are being extra vigilant and have a lot of additional surveillance in place. This means we will get reports as soon as there is any increase in sickness in the community with general practice, pharmacies, district nurses, schools and early childhood centres reporting back to us. "We will let the public know straight away if we begin to see any signs of increased sickness."
"So far we have only seen the bug in a small number of people, but it can take longer to develop so we remain alert," Dr Snee said.
More information about cryptosporidium and giardia are available click here.
Dr Snee said the health system was well set up to cope with any increase in sickness. "We want to make sure people are safe, so again we remind everyone to keep an eye out for people living on their own and older people so we can make sure they get medical help if they aren’t getting better or are feeling worse. Healthline is available 24/7 on 0800 611 116.
Acting Medical Officer of Health William Rainger said this is a good time for people who have private bores to make sure they are aware of the quality of water in their supply; particularly if the supply is used for drinking water. More advice for bore owners can be found at Healthed.
Dr Rainger said the district health board continues to stress the need for vigilance in preventing secondary infections by making sure good hand hygiene rules were followed. More can be found out about safe hand washing click here.
The district health board reminds people that there are two illnesses which can be associated with campylobacter. Reactive Arthritis was one and while it was painful and affected more than one joint it would usually respond well to anti-inflammatories and treatment from a GP. The other, which is rare, is Guillain Barrē syndrome a neurological condition which hospital specialists are all trained and well equipped to treat should it arise. Information and reminders to be on the watch for these two illnesses has been sent to health professionals in Hawke’s Bay.
GENERAL HEALTH ADVICE
GPs have also asked us to remind the public that diarrhoea increases the risk of the contraceptive pill failing. Women need to take extra contraception to prevent getting pregnant if they have diarrhoea.
The boil water notice remains in place for Havelock North only. The advice is to boil water for one minute.
