A SCHOOL headmaster in Samarahan triggered a health scare today when a letter from the division health officer, which he posted onto one of his WhatsApp group chats, went viral.

The letter, from Samarahan division health officer Dr Nur Fatihah Oh Abdullah, dated June 4, said a 7-year-old boy from Taman Sentoria in Stakan had tested positive for the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus on June 23 

She was explaining why the headmaster’s cooperation was needed for a vaccination campaign in the school. 

JE is a viral infection of the brain caused by infected mosquitoes.

In 1999, a viral outbreak in Negri Sembilan that caused 58 deaths was initially blamed on the JE virus.

Subsequent testing by Universiti Malaya virologist Dr Chua Kaw Bing revealed that the outbreak was caused by a virus from pigs that were infected by a paramyxovirus from bats which also attacked the brain.

The virus was named Nipah after the village Sg Nipah.

Following that, hundreds of thousands of pigs were culled, crippling the pig farming industry in Negri Sembilan. 

“There’s no outbreak”, a source in the Samarahan health office told The Malaysian Insight.

“The 7-year-old victim has recovered and gone back to school a long time ago.

“There have been no new cases detected since, and the vaccination drive was just a precaution,” the source said.

The source said JE cases were “common in Sarawak”.

“We get them all the time every year. JE is endemic in Malaysia and especially in Sarawak.

“Maybe people are still edgy from the rabies outbreak (in Serian) and when they read that a boy had been tested positive for JE virus, they panicked.” 

The rabies outbreak in Serian, about 96km from Kuching city, had claimed the lives of two siblings – a 6-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother.

Their parents on Tuesday consented to have their life support system removed after doctors explained to them that their children were already brain dead.

They died minutes apart – one at 1.43pm, the other at 1.46pm.

The National Library Board of Singapore said JE “is noted as the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia” and JE is “endemic in Malaysia”.

It said that there were between nine and 91 cases were reported in Malaysia annually.

Dr Nur Fatihah could not be reached for comments and state health director Dr Jamilah Hashim would not return calls and messages for confirmation. – July 6, 2017.