Friends and family confirm they were not told about typhoid

Friends and family of an Auckland woman who died after contracting typhoid have confirmed they were not told she had the disease in the lead up to her death.

Friend and fellow church member Christina Sagapolutele told media this afternoon following the woman's death, health officials visited the pastor of their church: Mt Albert Samoan Assembly of God.

The woman died on Tuesday, March 28, and health authorities visited the pastor on Thursday, March 30.

The pastor informed them the only time the congregation had shared food, recently, was a few days earlier after the Sunday service.

One family always prepared afternoon tea after church; which included hot drinks, sandwiches and muffins.

Health officials were also given a list of church members and their contact details.

Two days later, health officials informed the pastor they had spoken and tested the family who prepared the afternoon tea.

"All was well, no one was sick."

A request was made for the pastor to bring together the whole of the congregation on Sunday, April 2, so people could be tested for typhoid.

However, the dead woman's family service was being held that night and her funeral service would be held the next day, on Monday.

Sagapolutele acknowledged earlier reports in which the Auckland Regional Public Health Service said they held off announcing publicly that a person had died from the disease out of respect for cultural protocol.

But Sagapolutele said that was not the case.

It was not a "cultural excuse", she said, but a practicality issue, as many members of the church were involved in helping with the services and would therefore not be available.

The church pastor did, however, request that the name of the church not be released yet, as they wanted to first inform the school in which their services were held at: Wesley Primary School, in Mt Roskill.

Despite that request, the name of the church congregation was released by the ARPHS on Tuesday - a day after the woman's funeral.

The church was named as the Samoan Mt Roskill Assembly Of God. That lead to a lot of upset and confusion as there are several Samoan AOG churches within the Mt Roskill area.

That misinformation led to people from those congregations becoming panicked and confused about the situation.

Mika said they felt the ARPHS had "dropped the ball" in the handling of the whole situation.

However, they were still looking to move forward by working closely with them now.

Sagapolutele paid tribute to the woman who died, who she said was a friend.

"She's a loving woman, she's caring to her family and also very committed to her church."