PUTRAJAYA, April 15 — The actual cause of death of a 10-year-old pupil in Malacca could not be verified as the victim was infected by the A(H1N1) influenza virus and encephalitis at the same time, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.
He said the Year Five pupil’s death was extraordinary and the ministry could not determine the actual cause of death as an examination of the brain was not carried out.
“At the moment, the confirmation that the victim contracted H1N1 was only based on samples taken in the respiratory tract.
“As such, it is difficult for us to confirm whether the encephalitis was due H1N1,” he told a press conference here today.
The boy was allegedly infected by Influenza A (H1N1) virus and died early this morning. He went into a coma while being treated at a private hospital in Malacca.
According to Dr Subramaniam, the private hospital doctor diagnosed the cause of the student’s death as due to secondary viral encephalitis and H1N1 and the ministry accepted the cause for the time being.
“The boy could have probably died of encephalitis. But there was no attempt to extract the fluid from the spinal cord to ascertain whether H1N1 caused the infection.
“It is difficult to prove now since there was no post-mortem conducted on the body. At this stage, we have lost our chance to prove what exactly caused the death of the victim.
“A test that involves a sample of the victim’s spine fluid (antigen) would have answered the exact cause,” he explained.
In this regard, Dr Subramaniam reminded the people not to panic and practise preventive measures to stop the spread of the influenza infection and practise a healthy lifestyle.
He said there was no record of H1N1 cases as the World Health Organisation no longer monitored such infection and there was no need to report such cases to the organisation.
“This is because H1N1 is similar to other types of seasonal influenza,” he said.
However, Dr Subramaniam said the ministry was monitoring more than 300 clinics nationwide on respiratory diseases each week and if there was a spike in such cases, further investigations would be conducted.
Commenting on the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, he said the ministry was still awaiting confirmation on the cause of death of a Year One pupil in Johor last Friday from the National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK) in Sungai Buloh, Selangor.
“We do not want to make any speculation. But we want schools or parents to report such cases to health authorities as soon as possible. I also do not want the people to panic as HFMD usually does not cause such a huge problem,” he said.
Yesterday, the Johor Health Department confirmed a pupil died of septic shock due to the failure of multiple internal organs.
In Malacca, state Education, Higher Education, Science and Technology, Green Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Datuk Md Yunos Husinsaid no other student at Sekolah Kebangsaan Cina (SRJK (C))Pay Teck (where the boy was from) had any symptoms of H1N1 like high fever.
He said the state government also had not received any reports other people being infected.
“All these show the situation is well under control and the school will reopen as normal tomorrow. There is no need for parents to worry as the authorities are in full control.
“I also hope people will not spread rumours which will only aggravate the situation. Get information from authoritative sources,” he said. — Bernama
