8/2/2019 Rheumatic fever rate a disgrace

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Piggery investigationThe Agriculture and Forestry Ministryis investigating a Levin piggery aftera second visit by animal welfareprotesters. Open Rescue broke intothe farm with former pork industryadvocate Mike King last year andfilmed what they said weredistressed animals. The group visitedagain last Sunday to check whetherimprovements had been made. MAFfound no problems last year. A MAFspokeswoman said yesterday ananimal welfare complaint wasreceived last week and inspectorsvisited the piggery on Friday. Areport was due next week. KukuBeach Piggery owner Colin Kay saidthere were definitely no welfareconcerns at his piggery and he wasa target of the political agenda ofextremist vegetarians.

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HAT ISRHEUMATIC

EVER?heumatic fever is anss caused by a reactionstreptococcus A throat

ction.

bout 70 per cent ofdren who get rheumaticer will have some heart

mage, which can lead toumatic heart disease.

bout 145 people die fromumatic heart disease eachr, many of them in theirand 50s or sometimes

n younger.

lmost all instances of thease are preventable, with

per treatment of a sore throat reducing the riskabout 80 per cent.

hildren with rheumatic fever are treated withnthly penicillin shots until they reach their early, saving them from heart-valve replacements orsplants.

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Rheumaticfever ratea disgrace

e Newton

LTH

THE COST OF ASORE THROAT

Capital & Coast District HealthBoard paid the costs of treating a13-year-old girl who spent twomonths in Wellington Hospital withrheumatic fever earlier this year.Her hospital stay was a typicalrheumatic fever case, paediatricianNikki Blair said.

Emergency departmentadmission and urgenttriage $698Intensive care unitstay (one day) $5517Childrens Hospitalstay (53 days) $41,642Outpatient attendances(four) $1271X-rays (seven) $715Ultrasounds (three) $739Total $50,583

Lab tests, which would have cost

several hundred dollars, are not

included in the total.

THE COST OF ASORE THROAT

Capital & Coast District HealthBoard paid the costs of treating a13-year-old girl who spent twomonths in Wellington Hospital withrheumatic fever earlier this year.Her hospital stay was a typicalrheumatic fever case, paediatricianNikki Blair said.

Emergency departmentadmission and urgenttriage $698Intensive care unitstay (one day) $5517Childrens Hospitalstay (53 days) $41,642Outpatient attendances(four) $1271X-rays (seven) $715Ultrasounds (three) $739Total $50,583

Lab tests, which would have cost

several hundred dollars, are not

included in the total.

W ZEALANDS extraordinaryes of rheumatic fever are a dis-ce and it is an embarrassmentdisease even exists here, GPs

d paediatricians say.About 600 children in North-d have undergone screening in

past week for heart damagesed by rheumatic fever, whichaused by streptococcus throat

ections and can lead to seriousdiac problems and even death.

Although research has focusedchildren in South Auckland

d Northland, even New Zea-ds overall rates are 14 times

OECD average and paedia-ians say the disease needsent Government attention.

Parts of Wellington have abys-l rates of rheumatic fever luding Porirua East, whichries the dubious honour of

ving the countrys highest inci-ce of the disease.

Doctors in the region are call- for sore throat clinics inools and heart screening foral children who may have

pped through the cracks.Nationally, rates of rheumaticer are six in 100,000, rocketing06 in 100,000 in Porirua East.

Regional Public Health medicalcer of health Margot McLean

d New Zealands rates were aional disgrace.I think we should be con-ned. [Its] a disease which is

most unheard of in countries inrope, for instance. Why Newland has still got these high

es is hard to explain, exceptt New Zealand has a highere of children living in poverty.Wellington paediatric surgeonendon Bowkett said the ratesre bloody frightening.The Government has a respon-

ility to deal with this epidemic.ere really needs to be a govern-nt directive.

Wellington Hospital paediatri-n Alan Farrell said it was notl understood why rheumatic

er developed in some childrend not others but the disease wasociated with overcrowding and

income.I think rheumatic fever is anicator of how were treating theple at the bottom of the heap.

Sixto eight Wellingtonchildreneloped acute rheumatic feverh year, some of whom needed

gent open-heart surgery tolace badly damaged valves.To have a new valve put in

en youre 10 or 12 is a pretty bigl and it means youre going to

ve ongoing issues the rest ofur life.Children diagnosed with evend rheumatic fever had to en-

re painful monthly penicillin

injections for 10 to 15 years, to pre-vent further attacks that couldcause rheumatic heart disease.

Dr Farrell supported heartscreening for all at-risk children toensure cardiac problems causedby rheumatic fever did not goundetected.

If you can identify them earlyin life when the heart valve dam-age is minor, then you can protectthem.

His colleague, paediatricianNikki Blair, also wanted heartscreening introduced in Welling-ton.

She advocated sore throatclinics in low-decile schools tocatch strep throat before it de-veloped into full-blown rheumaticfever.

Porirua Union Health GPBryan Betty said he and hiscolleagues were well aware of theproblem and the high rates were

an embarrassment.Its not unusual for patients in

an area like ours to be on penicil-lin injections.

It could be hard convincingpeople it was worth taking theirchild to see a doctor when theyhad a sore throat, and how import-ant it was to complete a full courseof antibiotics.

Capital & Coast District HealthBoard has convened a group to tryto lower local rates and the HealthMinistry said rheumatic fever wasa priority work area.

That included employing arheumatic fever sector leader towork with health boards withhigh rates, better monitoring, col-laborating with other agencies toimprove housing conditions andensuring doctors were aware howserious the disease was.

Council chiefs luxury staycourtesy of the ratepayerAmanda Fisher

THE BIGGESTHITS

Wellington City Council chiefexecutive Garry Poole spent$1192.68 on two nightsaccommodation plus expensesat an American luxury boutiquehotel, rated as one of the top

500 in the world.Ratepayers picked up a $208

round of drinks for Air NewZealand executives.Mr Pooles chartered accountant

annual subscriptions of $1530 plus a $60 late fee werecharged to his purchase card.

THE BIGGESTHITS

Wellington City Council chiefexecutive Garry Poole spent$1192.68 on two nightsaccommodation plus expensesat an American luxury boutiquehotel, rated as one of the top

500 in the world.Ratepayers picked up a $208

round of drinks for Air NewZealand executives.Mr Pooles chartered accountant

annual subscriptions of $1530 plus a $60 late fee werecharged to his purchase card.

WELLINGTON ratepayers havefunded the drinks tab for Air NewZealand executives, motivationalbooks and luxury accommodation

including a council bosss two-night hotel bill of nearly $1200.

Wellington City Council chief

executive Garry Poole who wasnot available for comment as thecouncil does not think its necess-ary for him to actually have todefend such minor spending racked up $5940 in two years fromJuly 2008 on his purchase card.

Mr Pooles two-night $1192.68accommodation plus expenses tabwas for The Heathman Hotel, inPortland, Oregon, described asluxury accommodation andnamed as one of the top 500 hotelsin the world, by Travel + Leisuremagazine.

Council spokesman RichardMacLean said US$250 a night wasan acceptable amount to pay foraccommodation, and was ham-pered by a grotesque exchangerate at the time.

We do not expect our chiefexecutive to stay in a backpackers

in a rural suburb of Portland.The expense was incurred on a

week-long trip to Canada and theUnited States, when he and mayorKerry Prendergast who pays forher own expenses were flownover to look at new-generationaircraft which could begin land-ing at Wellington Airport, largelyat Air New Zealands expense.

In appreciation of the generos-ity, Mr Poole bought $208 worthof drinks for Air New Zealand

executives. Its fairly minimalpayback, Mr MacLean said. AirNew Zealand were generousenough to think about Welling-tons economy.

Wellington ratepayers wouldnot be upset at having to fork outfor the drinks round, given themoney saved on airfares to North

America.Other expenses included Mr

Pooles $750 and $780 subscriptionsfor the New Zealand Institute ofChartered Accountants includ-ing a $60 late fee. It was standardpractice for an employer to meetthese costs, Mr MacLean said.

Two motivational books, worthabout $58, were bought for thebenefit of council managers andstaff members, and a $68 welcomebreakfast was charged to markthe arrival of a new employee.

Mr MacLean said Mr Poole andthe council did not believe therewas a case to answer for any of thetransactions.

Its very hard to find anythingunjustifiable in the records.

Public deserves to know where rates goEDITORIALB4

SKATES OF WRATH

LEFT to right, Evilicious Diva, EveViscerate, Suffer Jet, Meow andVelocity Raptor jostle for position atTSB Arena. They were among 26players involved in Saturday nightsRichter City 2010 roller derby season

opener, which filled the Wellingtonarena with 4000 spectators. Theobject of the game is simple: fiveskaters from each team skatearound a circular track. Four playersin each team are called blockers and

the fifth is know as the jammer. It isthe job of the blockers to stop theopposing teams jammer frompassing them. Teams are awardedpoints based on the number ofblockers their jammer manages to

pass. Brutal Pageant, wearing black,beat Smash Malice 125 points to 103on Saturday. There was no quartergiven by the skaters, and SmashMalices jammer, Tuff Bikkies, wassent off. Photo: KEVIN STENT

Weepus bigweek: babyandBledisloeTHE delivery was spot on againfor halfback Piri Weepu as he hasbecome a father in time to join theAll Blacks for Saturdays BledisloeCup rugby test in Melbourne.

Weepu will join the squad inMelbourne tomorrow after wel-coming a daughter to the world in

Wellington yesterday.Arguably the standout player

from the All Blacks 31-17 defeat oSouth Africa on July 17 in the cap-ital, the 26-year-old had been indoubt for the trans-Tasman trip ashe awaited the arrival of his firstchild.

However, he will now be inMelbourne when the starting XVare named tomorrow. He wouldnot comment yesterday.

Weepu enjoyed one of the bestperformances of his 40-test careerwhen replacing Jimmy Cowan asthe run-on halfback in the secondleg of the Springboks double-header.

Blues halfback Alby Mathew-son had been on standby if Weepuwas delayed in Wellington. NZPA

Wallabies challenge D8

8/2/2019 Rheumatic fever rate a disgrace

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TODAYTARANAKISWET OTHERWISEFINE,

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WELLINGTON CITY HIGH11 LOW2HUTTVALLEY HIGH11 LOW2PORIRUA HIGH11 LOW1KAPITI COAST HIGH11 LOW-1

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AUCKLANDSHOWERSTAURANGA

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TAUPOFINE ATFIRSTWHANGANUIFINE ATFIRST

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Monday, July 26, 2010 www.dompost.co.nz $1.50 Freight: (Auckland, Tauranga,South Island) $1.80

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New rulesfor air riflesA2

NEWS

THE REGIONS

Fruit-pickers claimthey werent paidDozens of Bay of Plenty kiwifruitworkers are crying foul over unpaidwages, lack of holiday allowancesand contractors who allegedly givefalse details. NEWS A5

Where your rates

money goesWellington ratepayers have fundedthe drinks tab for Air New Zealandexecutives, motivational books andluxury accommodation including acouncil bosss two-night hotel bill ofnearly $1200.NEWS A3

Love Parade endsin disasterAt least 19 people are killed at aLove Parade music festival inGermany, when panic among thecrowd sparks a stampede. About 50others are seriously injured. Festival-goers said it was an accident waitingto happen as huge crowds wereherded through a tunnel under ahighway. WORLDB1

Deadly weekendon roadsFour people are dead and nine othersseriously hurt after a weekend ofcarnage on New Zealand roads.Another two people were run over indriveway accidents yesterday oneof them an 18-month-old toddler whoalso died. NEWS A4

The wild wind thatshook up snookerOne of the finest snooker stars, anddefinitely the most flamboyant, isdead. Alex Hurricane Higgins, thewhirling dervish who shook up a staidsport in the 1970s, has died ofcancer at 61. SPORT D1

RSA copsooze ban

for letting

driver getoo drunk

t Calman

David Campbell: Caught drink-drivingat nearly four times the legal limit.

Tawa RSA:The club has been penalisedfor serving a drunk person alcohol.

WELLINGTON RSA has beennned from selling alcohol for ay after one of its members got

nk at the club and was caughtnk-driving at nearly four timeslegal limit.

The man, David John Camp-l, was described in evidence byarresting officer as the worstnk Ive seen that was actuallyl awake. He was so drunk he

uld not be fingerprinted byice until the next morning.

At a Liquor Licensing Auth-ty hearing last week, the Tawaurned and Services Associ-

on was suspended for serving ank p er so n a lc oh ol a nd

owing a person to becomenk on licensed premises.t was given a 24-hour suspen-

n of its liquor licence and itsmanager, Alastair Miller, was

pended for one month.The club says that, on the nightDecember, its manager stoppedving Campbell and took his cars from him.

Club president John Sait saidother club member had left withmpbell to drive him home buting an argument, Campbell gotkeys back and drove from the

b, despite being about 10nutes walk from his house.Campbell, 50, a self-employedwa consultant, was convicted in

irua District Court in Febru-of driving with 299 milligrams

alcohol per 100 millilitres of

od. The legal limit is 80mg.He was disqualified from driv-

for nine months, fined $1200d ordered to pay court costs of0.Police said he was stopped aftering to indicate and driving onwrong side of the road.

When The Dominion Post wentCampbells home, he said hes aware the club had gone be-e the authority but refused to

mment further.Mr Sait said the club managerld not have done any more to

p Campbell driving. He didrything correctly. He policest place really well.

Campbell had been a club mem-for about 10 years, had fre-

ntly offered his building skillse of charge, and continued to bealued part of the club.He hasnt been ostracised atHes not a raving alcoholic.

s a working guy. Hes a goodmber of the club. Its unfortu-

nate that whats happened hascome back and affected the RSA.

Club secretary Tom King saidthe club had run for more than 60years with an unblemished recordand felt the penalty was harsh.

Its a shock to us all. Its a sadhappening. The initial thought . . .

is that it did seem rather punitive.We didnt think we were going toget away scot-free. What we triedto emphasise [to the judge] was thepositive action that we took in theclub. What he [Campbell] didsubsequently outside the club wasa personal action.

Alcohol Advisory Councilspokesman Andrew Galloway saidthe RSA suspension showed policewere taking the enforcement ofliquor laws seriously. For some-one to be served to that level in aclub is concerning.

Police National Alcohol Pro-grammes manager Tracy Patter-son said a crackdown had resultedin a 500 per cent jump since 2004 inpolice applications to the auth-ority for suspensions of bars andmanagers.

First offenders were normallygiven warnings but not in themost serious cases. It certainlysends a warning shot across a lotof peoples bows.

On the ball: Matalena Vaeluaga says Kevin, 13, needs monthly penicillin jabs to ward off rheumatic fever, but still plays his favourite sport, rugby. Photo: ANDREW GORRIE

Heart damagedoesnt holdKevin back

Scary time:Kevin in hospital,aged eight.

Kate Newton

INSIDE

Disease rate a disgrace A3

INSIDE

Disease rate a disgrace A3

WHEN Kevin Vaeluaga listens tohis heart through the doctorsstethoscope, he can hear it swish-ing.

The whispery sound thatmuffles its beat is a heart murmur

damage to Kevins heart valvescaused by a bout of acute rheu-matic fever when he was eight,that left him in hospital for weeks.

New Zealands overall rate ofrheumatic fever is 14 times theOECD average, and is thought tobe linked to poverty and over-crowding. Paediatricians say theprevalence of the disease is shame-ful and requires urgent Govern-ment attention.

Neither Kevin, now 13, nor hisparents Matalena and Lafaele

Vaeluaga, ofParaparaumu,can clearly re-m em be r t hesore throat thatmust havestarted it all.

T he f ir stsuggestion thatanything wasw ron g wa sw he n K ev incomplained of asore hip thatbecame so badh e h a d t o b ecarried. Wel-lington Hos-

pital doctors suspected gout anddrained fluid from his hip.

He improved, but a week later,the pain returned, this time in his

foot. Worried doctors held offtreating him until they could diag-nose the underlying cause.

They started hearing funnys ou nd s o n t he h ea rt , M rsVaeluaga said.

The doctor put on his rheu-matic fever glasses and spottedthe real problem, Mr Vaeluagasaid.

Kevin said the month he spentin hospital was scary. I just didntknow what was going on.

He has moderate heart valvedamage and, to ward off futureattacks, he now has monthly peni-cillin injections, which will be apart of his life until he turns 20.

The painful injections werevery traumatic to begin with,Mrs Vaeluaga said. One of us hadto go in and hold him still.

In other respects, Kevin leads anormal life. He plays his favouritesport, rugby, for the Paraparaumuunder-13 side, although Mrs Vae-luaga has to remind his coachesnot to let him get out of breath.

The lack of knowledge aboutwhat turns some throat infectionsinto rheumatic fever and notothers was hard to deal with, MrsVaeluaga said.

I still ask, what did we dowrong? The environment, thehouse or what? They cant explainit it just so happens this childhas it.

New rail line to help unclog networkAmanda Fisher

End of the line: Three main rail linesnow run into Wellington railway station.

WELLINGTONS commuter railnetwork gets a third main linetoday, in a major upgrade thatpromises to reduce the clog oftrains in and out of Wellingtonrailway station.

The third line would begin fer-rying trains today from theregions train lines to Wellingtonplatforms. Previously, all trainlines merged into just two mainlines, resulting in bottlenecks.

Sometimes people will findtheir trains have been just waitingand just stacking up . . . at theentrance to the main yards, Kiwi-Rail spokeswoman Ruth Larsensaid.

The new line would eventuallytransport half of all incomingtrains in the mornings and half of

all outgoing trains in the evenings,but would not be fully up to speedfor a few weeks.

People arent necessarily go-ing to notice a huge change in-itially because well gently intro-duce it into full operation.

The commuter network hasbeen plagued by breakdowns anddelays, angering frustratedpassengers.

Trains on the Paraparaumu,Johnsonville and Petone lineswere again disrupted during theweekend and replaced by buses aswork continued on the $500million, two-year network up-grade.

All services were due to resumeas normal today, though more dis-ruptions would hit throughout theyear as the upgrade continued.

It includes renewing overheadwires, new substations and signal-ling systems, a new track throughKapiti, electrification of the sys-tem and platform upgrades.

Signalling system upgradeswould be finished this year,double-tracking and electrification

of the system was due to be com-pleted early next year and theoverhead line upgrades would becompleted by mid-2011, Ms Larsensaid.

Greater Wellington regionalcouncil spokeswoman PhilippaLagan said the first of 48 Korean-built Matangi trains would arrivethis coming weekend and was dueto appear on the Upper Hutt linein December.

The next of the two-car trainswould arrive in September andfrom October there would be anaverage of one a week till the endof 2011. The new trains would jointhe Johnsonville line in April, andKapiti in January 2012.

Even when the new trains arehere, well still be using . . . thecurrent fleet of trains in peakservices.