Photo: 123RF
Six residents of a rest home in Whitianga have died after a third of residents and staff were infected with Influenza A over a 12-day period.
The outbreak at Whitianga Care Centre and Village was reported to Te Whatu Ora on 28 January, and the health agency said there has been no further spread since last Friday.
Oceania Healthcare runs the facility which has 48 residents and 29 staff on site.
Its group general manager for sales and services Anita Hawthorn told RNZ's Midday Report that 17 residents were infected and eight staff members.
The first resident who fell ill with with symptoms was infectious at the centre for two days before they started deteriorating, Hawthorn said, and was taken to Thames Hospital where it was confirmed they had Influenza A.
She said the site introduced full infectious disease control protocols once Influenza A was identified, including deep cleaning, placing all infected residents in isolation, and requiring staff and visitors to wear personal protective equipment (PPE).
Hawthorn said one resident died in hospital, one died at home, and four died at the centre.
Age Concern's chief executive Kevin Lamb said the outbreak in Whitianga's rest home was a reminder for people to protect themselves and vulnerable people from influenza.
Lamb said it was concerning that people were getting complacent after years of Covid-19 restrictions.
People had been taking severe measures to protect themselves but it was now just accepted as part of life.
"I think almost we've allowed that complacency to seep in, and we forget that we're not out of the woods with Covid completely," he said.
"And we know influenza and different strains of influenza will come about every single year, and we need to ensure that we're protecting ourselves and that we're not falling into that complacency trap and that we're getting our vaccinations regularly."
University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said the rest home setting was high risk for influenza outbreaks.
"Once a virus gets into that population, you've got a lot of vulnerable people living in close confines so the virus can spread very rapidly," he said.
"A critical thing is to make sure as best we can stop people who are symptomatic, with any respiratory infections, as staff or visitors going into these facilities, because that's what starts these outbreaks."
Professor Baker said there was low level transmission of influenza every day of the year, but at the moment there was the added factor of people coming in from the northern hemisphere where flu was intense at the moment.
He said vaccines taken at the end of last year might not provide protection for the virus coming from overseas right now.
Baker said the combined deaths from Covid-19 and influenza last year accounted for 5 percent of all deaths in New Zealand.