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The Auckland District Health Board is refusing to talk about the tuberculosis case that left one woman dead, another seriously ill in hospital and hundreds of people needing testing for the deadly disease.
The city's Auckland Regional Public Health Service has also been ordered by the health board not to answer questions on the case.
The Herald has repeatedly asked the health board why Auckland City Hospital staff failed to posthumously test the undiagnosed woman at the centre of the case for TB - despite her flatmate being in hospital weeks later with the highly contagious disease.
The flatmate had repeatedly reminded staff of the connection.
The health board yesterday said through a spokeswoman it would not answer that question. Samples from the dead woman were eventually tested after her flatmate took her case to a public health nurse.
It was found the dead woman had had an extremely aggressive and contagious form of tuberculosis.
The board has also refused to say how many of the more than 200 hospital staff earmarked for TB testing because of the incident had been tested to date; nor would it share what initial results had shown. The board would not give a reason for the silence.
The dead woman spent six weeks in hospital with an unknown respiratory illness before her death.
The Auckland District Health Board's chief medical officer, David Sage, has previously said the dead woman's case was highly unusual and was not typical of tuberculosis.
He has also said the health board was "fully confident of the clinical screening process that had been carried out" on the woman.
Health Minister David Cunliffe has ruled out intervening in the health board's refusal to talk.
"It would be inappropriate for me to instruct the board regarding its communications with the media on this matter."
He said he had confidence the board was putting public safety first and was working diligently to trace contacts.
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