Media Releases
NZ Leads Western World in Rates of ‘Significant but Neglected’ Disease
Friday 11 April 1997
The Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour has issued a warning to employers in the agricultural sector to vaccinate their cattle against an animal-transmitted disease that is at least as common as Hepatitis B.
Leptospirosis can be transmitted to humans from mainly cows, sheep and pigs. Over the last year, 150 human cases of Leptospirosis were diagnosed. However, a current study has found that, in many cases, the disease is being misdiagnosed or dismissed as bad cases of influenza.
Leptospirosis study head, Dr Martin Robb, says the disease is ‘significant but neglected’ in this country, despite New Zealand having the highest rate of Leptospirosis in the western world.
Dr Robb conveyed that this is of further concern, as his analysis revealed that the majority of cases are preventable.
"Despite the availability of cheap vaccines for 20 years, surveys have shown that, until recently, only around one third of dairy farmers have been vaccinating their cows," Dr Robb said.
The disease can cause severe and prolonged illness in humans, often causing jaundice and kidney failure along with headaches, fever and nausea, and Leptospirosis can lead to meningitis. Victims often require hospitalisation and even intensive care treatment.
Dr Robb said the illness was transmitted animal to human by contact with the urine or kidney tissue of infected animals, and was very infectious, usually entering the human body through broken skin or through the eyes, nose or mouth.
"Those at greatest risk are dairy farmers, sharemilkers, abattoir workers, vets and meat inspectors," Dr Robb said. "But we are also seeing it with owners of life-style blocks with only one or two animals."
In 1995, OSH successfully prosecuted a Hauraki Plains farmer after two employees contracted the disease from a herd that had not been vaccinated for eight years. The farmer was fined $15,000.
