A World Health Organisation representative said today that the meningitis scare in Malaysia has not reached the stage of an "outbreak" as there is only one confirmed death from the deadly disease.

"There is only one confirmed case. The other fatalities were not due to meningitis," said WHO representative in Malaysia Dr Susantha de Silva.

In the event of an outbreak, the Health Ministry will inform WHO and certain remedial measures will have to be taken, he said.

"There are no specific procedures but usually we will deal with people who come in contact with the infected person first. This is known as contact tracing. Then we will carry out vaccination.

"Those called in will be put under observation. Then we will diagnose them and prescribe the correct vaccines. We will assist the Health Ministry with guidelines depending on the place and information available. It is then their responsibility to inform the people," Susantha said.

On the case of the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) student, Susantha said there was no need to vaccinate the entire university as "it was an isolated case". He also did not encourage mass vaccination as different vaccinations may have adverse effects on different people.

Vaccine available

"We must not scare people unnecessarily as it is only a minor incident," Susantha stressed adding that Malaysia has enough stock of the vaccine to treat meningitis.

Chemoprophylaxis is usually prescribed as an antibiotic treatment for meningitis.

"We have ample stock of the vaccine in Malaysia and if hospitals are short of supply, they can contact the Health Ministry," he added.

However, not all in the medical field agreed with Susantha's contention.

In an e-mail to malaysiakini yesterday, a Dr Yap Tuan Gee from Hong Kong opined that "two deaths within one university will be enough for a strict epidemiologist to call it an 'outbreak'".

On June 29, UPM student D Thiyagarajan died of meningitis. Last Friday, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kasnita Mohd Kassim died of meningoencephalitis or brain inflamation which is a meningitis variant.

Another UPM student, Loy Cheah Kee, died on June 27 of pulmonary oedema, after showing symptoms similar to those of meningitis. However, Loy's body was released for burial before a postmortem could be conducted.

Denial by minister

On July 13, the New Straits Times reported that Health Ministry director-general Dr Mohamad Taha Arif has issued an outbreak alert more than two weeks after the death of the UPM students.

Today, the paper quoted Health Minister Chua Jui Meng denying that four UPM students who were admitted to Kajang Hospital last weekend, had meningitis.

"The UPM students were warded at the Kajang Hospital just for observation," he said

"The press should behave more responsibly. This country will not benefit from speculative reports which are not based on facts and printed on the front pages of newspapers. This will only make people anxious unnecessarily," the minister added.