Aust tourists hit by virus
Updated: 11:22, Wednesday October 3, 2012
Up to 20 Australians on a skiing holiday in New Zealand were hit with a highly contagious virus after visiting a town whose water supply was contaminated, but the group contacted authorities only once they'd returned home.
Public Health South medical officer of health Dr Derek Bell told AAP between 15 and 20 Australians had been hit by norovirus in August and September.
Norovirus is an easily spread viral gastroenteritis, which causes nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Although some of Australians recovered while still in New Zealand, others returned home ill.
Public Health South was informed after they returned home and had to contact them in Australia.
Dr Bell says the Australians may have caught the virus when they visited friends, some of whom were sick, in Cardrona, 40km northeast of Queenstown.
Before the group arrived in Cardrona there had been an outbreak of the virus in the town caused by the drinking water supply being contaminated by waste water.
A "boil water policy" was put in place and the outbreak is under control.
From August 18 to September 5 there were 53 cases of norovirus in Cardrona.
Public Health South could not say from which state the Australians were from.
This week Middlemore Hospital in Auckland and Tauranga Hospital took precautions to stop the spread of norovirus after a number of patients caught the bug.
