Sewage suspected in camp outbreak
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The outbreak of suspected norovirus at the Golden Bay Holiday Park may have been caused by sewage contaminating a creek running through the campground.
Nelson Marlborough District Health Board medical officer of health Ed Kiddle said the campground remained closed this morning after holidaymakers were still sick on Saturday night. Most campers left during the weekend, and a health protection officer will reassess the situation today.
During a routine bathing water survey of the area's beaches a fortnight ago, Tasman District Council environmental protection officers found high levels of E.coli contamination at the mouth of the Tukurua Stream, which runs through the campground. The level was 700 most probable number (mpn).
Council environment planning officer Dennis Bush-King said a level of 240mpn would see the council start "intensive monitoring". At 500mpn, signs would go up warning people not to swim in the water.
The testing was carried out on January 15, and Mr Bush-King said warning signs went up the following Friday.
The council had since tested further sites upstream, and was also dye-testing the camp and areas further upstream to try to identify the source of the contamination.
Mr Bush-King said the council would have the results today or tomorrow.
"The testing is trying to narrow down our understanding of potential sources."
Dr Kiddle said the main method of norovirus transmission was person-to-person and from touching contaminated surfaces.
"Almost certainly that happened in the camp."
He said the creek may have been contaminated by faecal material.
"If there was E.coli in there, the virus could have got in there as well. That indicates there are problems."
He said the disposal field from the campground's septic tank could have seeped into the creek, or the contamination could be from other sources upstream.
The Nelson Mail reported last week that the campground's sewerage system was recently upgraded.
Management could not be reached this morning for comment.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Having read this article, I am annoyed that either the council or camp owners are trying to imply that this is an outbreak that has only been around for the past two weeks.
We stayed at the Golden Bay campsite from 28 Dec - 8 Jan and during that time, countless campers fell very ill with a stomach virus, including myself and my children. I was so sick, that I even visited the doctor in Takaka and reported that there were numerous people with the same illness.
The camp managers were aware of this and we also made them aware that there was a strong and extremely unpleasant smell coming from the stream itself, which ran right behind our campsite and made up our mind to leave earlier than planned.
Luckily, my children didn't get a bad dose of the virus but they were playing, most afternoons/evenings, in the mouth of that stream where it ran into the sea, as were most of the other younger children in the camp.
While I don't think any blame should be attributed to the camp grounds themselves, it is a gorgeous spot and very well maintained and organised from what we saw. I believe that some investigation by local health authorities should have been done in early January, when the virus first broke out. This would have saved a lot of other families the distress and discomfort of getting a particularly nasty illness while supposedly on their holidays.