PUBLIC Health bosses have been rapped for their "secrecy" in dealing with the latest meningitis case to afflict East Lancashire.

A nine-month-old baby boy was today recovering in Burnley General Hospital.

He was the second child in a month at the town"s Le Monde Petit Nursery in Bank Parade to contract the potentially fatal disease.

But patient watchdog boss Frank Clifford has criticised the way East Lancashire Health Authority released information to the public, via the press.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph learned details of the victim from the nursery after the health authority refused to give out information.

Coun Clifford, chairman of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Community Health Council, said health chiefs should have been more pro-active and helpful in a bid to drill home the dangers of the disease to the public.

He said: "I don't see the point in being overtly secretive about it and refusing to reveal the effect on the victim nor where he lives.

"It is a public health department and the public have a right to know what is going on."

Dr Stephen Morton, public health director for East Lancashire said his department was instructive and helpful when answering Press inquiries. He said the latest incident was not an outbreak of meningitis but only a suspected individual case.

But he added that he needed to strike a balance so people were not alarmed unnecessarily.

"When we are approached by the Press we respond as accurately as possible.

"Luckily we have not had any untoward episodes with the Press.

" But there have been occasions when a bit of information has resulted in a 'hunt the patients' situation."

Parents of children at the nursery have been sent letters by the Health Authority to notify them of the second case.

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