Bacteria and parasites are influenced by climate variables, and infection rates may increase in response to climate change and rising temperatures. Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, and Salmonella are three such organisms that can contaminate our food and water, leading to serious illness. Monitoring the incidence rates of illnesses can help us assess the health risks related to climate change and better prepare for disease outbreaks.
The numbers of notified cases of infection are sourced from EpiSurv, New Zealand’s national notifiable disease surveillance system. Various factors influence disease notification, and therefore the calculation of notifiable disease rates. For example, people are less likely to consult a medical practitioner when an illness is not severe (ESR, 2016a). The number of notified cases vary greatly from year to year due to New Zealand’s small population and low number of cases for some diseases (Environmental Science and Research, 2016). The August 2016 Camplylobacter outbreak in Havelock provides an example of this variation (ESR, 2016b).
More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.
