THE response by officials to the case of meningitis involving a teacher at an East Lancashire school with 1,000 pupils is as crass as it is bewildering.

For though this can often be a deadly disease, parents are being deliberately kept in the dark over whether their children have been in contact with the victim who is now in hospital and, though older pupils are being given vaccine, younger ones are not because it is not their turn until next summer.

It is all very well for health officials to react in accord with their strict assessment of risks and for the council and the school to clam up and at the same time call for calm.

But do they not realise that people do worry whenever meningitis strikes - and understandably so when it can kill within hours?

And this outbreak at Darwen Vale High School is no different. It may be that the unfortunate teacher who is suffering from the disease has the right to confidentiality, but do not pupils taught by him have a right too - to be aware of whether or not they have been exposed to meningitis through him?

Surely, without using a loud-hailer, the school and the education authority could devise a system to meet that concern.

And though it may be that the new meningitis vaccine will only protect against one particular strain of the disease, and that it is not known which strain the stricken teacher has, why should it be withheld from younger pupils now when there is an outbreak when they are scheduled to get it in any case next summer?

What will the excuse for this bureaucratic stubbornness be if one of them does get the disease in the meantime?

This attitude comes across as being close to callous unconcern.

It will do nothing to dispel fear and possible panic when, to cope with that, an open and full response is what is necessary.

A stiff dose of common sense and compassion is required.

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