Main results:Giardiasis: There was a positive association between rainfall and giardiasis and between temperature and giardiasis.Cryptosporidiosis: There was a positive association between rainfall and cryptosporidiosis and a negative association between temperature and cryptosporidiosis. The effect of rainfall was modified by the quality of the domestic water supply.Conclusions: These findings suggest that climate variability affects protozoan disease rates in New Zealand. However, predicting the effect of climate change from this study is difficult, as these results suggest that the projected increases in temperature and rainfall may have opposing effects on cryptosporidiosis rates. Nevertheless, water supply quality appeared to modify the impact of increased rainfall on cryptosporidiosis rates. This finding suggests that improving water supply quality in New Zealand could reduce vulnerability to the impact of climate change on protozoan diseases.

Objective: To investigate the temporal relationship between the monthly count of salmonellosis notifications and the monthly average temperature in New Zealand during the period 1965–2006. Methods: A negative binomial regression model was used to analyse monthly average ambient temperature and salmonellosis notifications in New Zealand between 1965 and 2006. Results: A 1°C increase in monthly average ambient temperature was associated with a 15% increase in salmonellosis notifications within the same month (IRR 1.15; 95% CI 1.07 – 1.24). Conclusion: The positive association found in this study between temperature and salmonellosis notifications in New Zealand is consistent with the results of studies conducted in other countries. New Zealand is projected to experience an increase in temperature due to climate change. Therefore, all other things being equal, climate change could increase salmonellosis notifications in New Zealand. Implications: This association between temperature and salmonellosis should be considered when developing public health plans and climate change adaptation policies. Strategically, existing food safety programs to prevent salmonellosis could be intensified during warmer periods. As the association was strongest within the same month, focusing on improving food handling and storage during this time period may assist in climate change adaptation in New Zealand.

produced could benefi t from a wider critique, and government agencies in New Zealand could contribute to informed discussions by better documenting the current state of knowledge on their websites. AbstractAims: To review the literature on infectious diseases and meteorological and climate change risk factors in the New Zealand context and to describe a tentative research agenda for future work. Methods: We performed literature searches in May 2010 using Medline and Google Scholar. We also searched fi ve health-related government agencies in New Zealand for documentation on climate change and health. Results: The effect of climate variability and change on vector-borne disease has been considered in more detail than any other infectious disease topic (n = 20 + journal articles and reports relating to New Zealand). Generally, concern has arisen around the risk of new mosquito incursions and increased risks of dengue and Ross River fevers in the long term. For enteric diseases, the picture from fi ve New Zealand publications is somewhat mixed, although the data indicate that salmonellosis notifi cations increase with higher monthly temperatures. One interpretation of the New Zealand data is that communities without reticulated water supplies could be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change-mediated increases in protozoan diseases. This information informed a tentative research agenda to address research gaps. Priorities include the need for further work on a more integrated surveillance framework, vector-borne diseases, enteric diseases, skin infections, and then work on topics for which we found no published New Zealand work (such as infl uenza and leptospirosis). Finally, we found that health-related government agencies in New Zealand have relatively little ' climate change and health ' information on their websites. Conclusions: Although some informative work has been done to date, much scope remains for additional research and planning to facilitate prevention, mitigation, and adaptation responses in the New Zealand setting around climate change and infectious disease risks. The tentative research agenda Authors' confl ict of interest disclosure: Although we do not consider it a competing interest, for the sake of full transparency we note Brought to you by | Western University Authenticated Download Date | 6/7/15 2:24 PM

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