Four new cases of suspected meningitis among Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) students in the main campus in Serdang, Selangor, have been referred to the Kajang Hospital over the weekend, according to the campus medical centre officer.

"Among the four warded, one had symptoms of meningitis while tests are being conducted on the other three," Dr Fauziah Adnan told malaysiakini when contacted today.

Apart from these four, the others admitted to the Kajang Hospital over the past two weeks have been discharged, she added.

Since the meningitis scare erupted at the end of last month, 15 UPM students have been referred to the hospital. The university also screened a wide cross-section of its student population for the disease.

This development comes less than two weeks after the death of two UPM students. Loy Cheah Kee and D Thiyagarajan, died within two days of each other in their rented homes in Taman Bukit Serdang and Taman Balakong Jaya, on June 27 and 29, respectively after exhibiting symptoms of meningitis.

However, only Thiyagarajan was found to have died of meningitis. Loy's body was released for burial before an autopsy could be conducted, but the official cause of death was acute pulmonary oedema.

Last Friday, a mass communication student from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kasnita Mohd Kassim died of meningoencephalitis or brain inflamation which is a meningitis variant.

Fauziah said she will be meeting the UiTM medical centre officer later today to compare observations.

Health ministry criticised

Meanwhile, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang criticised the Health Ministry for not launching a nation-wide alert to warn the people about the meningitis threat.

The death of Kasnita could have been avoided had the ministry been responsible and prompt in launching a national awareness campaign about the disease.

"The death of two UPM students should have been made public at the first available opportunity to give UPM students accurate information as well as alert the people about the outbreak of the infectious disease," Lim said.

"But for two weeks, the UPM authorities failed to issue a full statement to the UPM undergraduates, leaving them to learn about the death and the killer disease through the campus grapevine," he added.

A check on the UPM website

at press time also showed no alert has been issued on the disease, although cuttings of newspaper reports on the matter can be found.

Lim urged Health Minister Chua Jui Meng to explain why the ministry issued a nationwide meningitis alert only after three students died in two weeks.

Officials from the ministry and Institute for Medical Research, which is conducting diagnostic tests on the disease, were not available for comment.