A girl in her teens has died in Helsinki of apparent meningitis caused by the meningococcus bacteria. Final confirmation of the infection is expected when laboratory tests come in.

   

The girl, a high school pupil at the Herttoniemi School in the east of Helsinki, is Finland's second apparent victim of bacterial meningitis within a short time. On Monday a three-year-old girl died in the southeastern city of Imatra.

   

Late last week the meningococcus bacteria was the cause of a serious case of blood poisoning for a five-year-old girl in the northern community of Kemijärvi. She is recovering in hospital in Rovaniemi.

"The cases have nothing to do

with each other, because the types of bacteria are different. We cannot even speculate on the risk of an epidemic", says Timo Rostila, epidemiologist at the Helsinki City Health Department.

   

The death of the Helsinki girl was apparently caused by the meningococcus bacteria type B, while the case in Kemijärvi was caused by the type C bacteria. Rostila says that the fact that the cases occurred within days of each other is a coincidence.

   

Family members of the deceased girl in Helsinki, as well as a number of classmates and hospital personnel involved in her care, have been given anti-microbe medicine as a precaution. There is no vaccine for meningococcus B.

   

Rostila says that he does not know of any cases in which meningococcus would have spread to a family member, or anyone else close to someone infected with the disease.

Parents at the Herttoniemi school

received letters from the Helsinki City Health Department advising pupils to seek immediate medical attention if they get a high fever within the next two weeks.

   

On Thursday the Helsinki City Health Department answered the calls of many concerned parents.

"The parents were put at ease

when they got more information", Rostila says.

   

Pupils at the school are being given more information today, Friday.

   

"This is necessary, especially in a time like this with SARS. When we speak using medical terminology, children of school age can easily draw the wrong conclusions", says Maija-Liisa Vehkamäki, the head teacher of the Herttoniemi school.

The meningococcus C vaccines

for the children at the day care centre in Kemijärvi were briefly lost in the mail on Wednesday night. The package failed to reach Kemijärvi on Thursday, which is when the children and personnel of the five-year-old girl's day care centre were to have been vaccinated.

   

The package was later found, and the vaccinations are taking place today.

   

The girl is on her way to recovery in hospital.

   

The case of the three-year-old girl who died in Imatra is to be confirmed today. Her four siblings have also exhibited some symptoms, and have received medication.