First listen to August 13 2016.
It’s been a bad week in Havelock North, a town of about 11,000 people. More than 4,000 have been sick as a result of contaminated water. Schools closed because so many pupils were absent.
Tests show that campylobacter is present in the water, probably from animals. The council has chlorinated the water but says it is still necessary to boil the water because it may have cryptosporidium (crypto) – a parasite also from animals – which is not killed by chlorine. Alcohol-based hand sanitisers also do not kill crypto. The illness can be highly contagious. Very careful hand washing is important. Hands should be scrubbed for at least 20 seconds and dried on a clean towel.
Last week, 700 people visited their local doctor, 22 were in hospital – 2 in intensive care – and one elderly woman died, perhaps from campylobacter but she had other health problems too. However, by this weekend, numbers of sick people have decreased.
It may take longer to find out exactly how the water became contaminated and what can be done about it.
Vocabulary
• campylobacter – pronounced cam-pile-oh-bacter- infection caused by bacteria which are found in the intestines of birds and other animals; people swallow the bacteria in contaminated food or water
• chlorine (n), chlorinate (v) chlorinated (adj) – a chemical (CL) which cleans the water
• parasite – an animal or plant which lives on or in another animal or plant
• sanitizer – cleans hands
• highly contagious (these words go together) – spreads easily to other people
• scrubbed – washed vigorously with a brush
• intensive care – special care for very sick people