Simon O’Connor/Stuff
In a report the World Health Organisation included Stratford as a case study after wastewater testing last November showed there was Covid in the town.
The surprise identification of Covid-19 in wastewater in a small rural Taranaki town thought to be Covid-free has been held up as a positive example by the World Health Organisation.
In its April Environmental Surveillance report, which includes Covid-19 trends, WHO used Stratford as a case study of finding outbreaks in areas thought to be Covid-free.
It was a story of how Stratford managed to ‘’put Delta back in the box,’’ Taranaki District Health Board (DHB) medical officer of health Jonathan Jarman said.
Evidence of Covid was found in the town’s wastewater over eight days in early November 2021. At the time Stratford had no known cases of the virus.
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The job of the Taranaki DHB’s Public Health Unit was to track down where the Covid fragments in the wastewater were coming from, Jarman said.
‘’We needed to be disease detectives. Was it a historical case or was it an active case? But in the end it was a team effort to track down the source of the Covid in the wastewater.’’
Stuff
Taranaki District Health Board medical officer of health Jonathan Jarman says the Public Health Unit is chuffed to get a mention by WHO.
The team included ESR, which did the wastewater testing, doctors, nurses, iwi healthcare providers, pharmacists, Covid testers, the Stratford District Council, the DHB and others.
‘’And of course the community itself who came forward to have the tests. Eventually we narrowed it down to a family who were a bit shy in coming forward.’’
Eventually six cases of Covid were identified in Stratford, all from the same household, on November 11. The first case had been having symptoms since October 28 following travl to Auckland, where there was a Delta outbreak. Given the Stratford cases related to just one household, the WHO report said the family’s actions ‘’ were sufficient to eliminate the virus”.
There was no evidence of the virus in the wastewater again until three months later.
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‘’Heightened awareness provided by the results of wastewater testing and the partnership by stakeholders, including the District Health Board and iwi healthcare providers, contributed to this outcome,’’ the WHO report said.
The unit is ‘’really chuffed’’ to get a mention by the WHO.
‘’There has been a whole heap of people who have been working very long hours for the last two years with the aim of keeping as many people as safe as possible from Covid-19. They don’t get thanked very often, so this mention by the WHO is really nice.’’
