Travellers to Majorca advised not to cancel holiday over meningitis scare

THE Department of Health said it was not advising intending travellers to Majorca to cancel their holidays following the deaths…

THE Department of Health said it was not advising intending travellers to Majorca to cancel their holidays following the deaths of two children from suspected meningitis at the Alcudia Pins complex.

It stressed that this should not be seen as "an outbreak" and there was no evidence the cases were connected. However, it advised that anyone coming from the complex who was worried about the health of their children should contact their GP.

As a precaution, the Spanish authorities have given preventative antibiotics to all children aged between two and 18 staying at the complex.

A spokeswoman for the Department said they did not want people to panic. "Travel agents are getting a lot of enquiries about the cases but people should not cancel their holidays. Some media reports said there was an `outbreak', but that isn't true.

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Mr Damien Mooney of Falcon Holidays said no Irish travel agents used the Alcudia Pins complex. He said people were reading about the two suspected cases in the papers, particularly in the British media, and then they rang about the situation.

The medical advice that travel agents were getting was that this was a bacteria that could not survive outside the body.

"Only those coming in kissing contact could be affected. It cannot be picked up in water or in swimming pools. People are obviously concerned but we inform them that these are isolated instances and there is nothing to suggest or prove that the two cases are related.

"No Irish agents feature this complex. We are getting a limited number of calls. Once we give them the facts, they can make their own informed decision. The Department of Health is advising people not to cancel their holidays and they would not do that unless they were satisfied it was safe", he said.

Ms Miriam Mullane, of Budget Travel, said they had received some calls about the matter. From the information available it appeared that it was unlikely that the two cases were related. Budget did not use the north of the island or the complex in question. Their other group, Sunbound, did use the north but not the Alcudia Pins complex.