22 January 2006
By STAFF REPORTERS
The family that is believed to have sparked Christchurch’s hepatitis A outbreak say the disease and its aftermath have placed an enormous emotional strain on them.
They maintain they were open and honest about their contact with the highly infectious liver disease, and say they followed all advice from health officials.
The family, whom public health officials identified as the likely source of the outbreak that has struck 30 people so far, declined to comment extensively on their situation until yesterday.
They broke their silence to express their “utter dismay and disappointment” over coverage of the hepatitis A outbreak.

The family’s father, young son and three-year-old daughter — who attends the Ferrymead ABC Learning Centre — all contracted the virus after a trip to Fiji in September. Their cases were reported to public health officials in the week to December 9. They became known as “Family One”.
All subsequent cases have been linked either directly or indirectly to the family and the childcare centre.
The family — whom The Press has decided not to identify — said they had not known their daughter was infectious.
AdvertisementAdvertisement”To those parents and strangers who may be asking, `Why was an infectious child allowed to attend preschool?’ my response is that we did not know she was infectious and by the time we found out, this whole event was unfolding at great speed and the virus had spread to dozens of people,” the family said in a statement emailed to The Press.
“It is possible that my daughter became infected, contagious, symptomatic and recovered as far back as late October. How can we identify a contagious virus in a child who is not symptomatic?”
On December 10, the family held a birthday party at their Mount Pleasant home for their three-year-old daughter.
The small gathering of close friends, some of whom attended the ABC Learning Centre, had been planned for some months and everyone who attended was told of the family having had a brush with hepatitis A.
“At no time were we advised against having a party,” the family said. “We were in fact told that as a family we were no longer contagious and that the risk of spread was minimal, but in light of this minimal risk we discussed extra precautions which we followed and I took additional precautions.
“Everyone at the party knew about our `situation’; at all times we were honest and open. We shared the information that we had obtained. We explained that we would not be offended if guests chose not to come.
“At no time did we ignore public health advice and continue with our `social activities’. We listened and did everything they suggested.”
Canterbury medical officer of health Mel Brieseman has said previously that hepatitis A patients were usually advised to stay home from work or school, to limit social contact and not to prepare food.
However, Brieseman said yesterday he did not wish to comment on this family’s particular situation.
The family said no other contacts among their friends and family had tested positive for hepatitis A.