A typhoid outbreak is hitting Auckland. Where did it come from and what can we do?

At least 10 people in NZ’s biggest city have reportedly been hospitalised with typhoid, and health officials say we can expect more cases. Siouxsie Wiles explains what typhoid is and the ‘super-shedder’ scenario


While the symptoms might not sound much different from other types of food poisoning, typhoid can be very serious. If not treated, between one to three in 10 infected people can die. The good news is that the majority of infected people can be treated with antibiotics.

Salmonella typhosus, cause of typhoid fever. Image: Kat Masback (kat m research)


The reason this outbreak is news is because we only ever usually see one or two cases at a time. This outbreak involves at least 10 people from different parts of Auckland. Public health officials will be working very hard to try to find a link between the cases so they can work out how the disease is spreading. So what might the options be?

Contaminated imported food or drink

In 2010, an outbreak of typhoid in the US was traced back to the importation of a ready-to-eat frozen fruit drink imported from Guatemala, an area where typhoid is prevalent. There were no more cases once authorities recalled the frozen drink. The same manufacturer was implicated in another outbreak in Florida in 1998. It would surprise me if something like this was the source of our outbreak as New Zealand has strict rules around the importation of fruit and vegetables.

Typhoid ‘super-shedders’


Since Typhoid Mary, there have been plenty of documented cases of S. Typhi shedders working in restaurants who have managed to contaminate the food they are preparing and make diners ill. Has someone in Auckland with a job involving food preparation recently returned from a trip overseas with S. Typhi?


Siouxsie Wiles’s new book for BWB, Antibiotic Resistance: The End of Modern Medicine?, is published on April 10

This post originally appeared at Sciblogs.


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