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Brian Caldwell
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Secrecy is making meningitis scarier

We hope it isn't in our house _ and we do what we can to keep it out.

Starting today, that should include going to special vaccination clinics in the north part of Waterloo Region for protection against meningococcal meningitis.

Local health officials acted swiftly to launch the massive vaccination program after one young person died and four others got seriously ill from the same strain of the disease.

That response speaks volumes about the risk to public health.

Still, the officials who made the call to vaccinate 100,000 residents from two to 22 aren't saying all they should.

Some details, like the name of the nightclub where two of the victims are known to have been together, haven't been released.

The reason for such secrecy is a mystery to me.

Dr. Doug Sider, the region's associate medical officer of health, is indignant that amateurs would question his judgment.

``It's a professional affront to be told that I'm withholding necessary information that the public should know, i.e. that we're putting people at risk,'' he said.

But when I ask myself a simple question, I still get a simple answer.

I'd want to know if I had been in the same nightclub as two people with a deadly disease that can be transmitted by kissing, sharing drinks or passing a cigarette.

Human beings crave that kind of information _ not to run around in a panic, but to do everything possible to protect themselves.

The problem, according to Sider, is that an investigation has failed to establish a direct link between the two people in the club that night.

It's not like batches of the bacteria are hanging around there waiting to hit on unsuspecting dancers.

And it could be nothing more than a strange coincidence that two people with the disease crossed paths that night. As a result, officials decided it would be damaging and unfair to name the nightclub involved.

Their concern for a local business may be commendable. I'm sure the chamber of commerce approves.

But if there's any possibility at all that others at the club could have been exposed, I expect the public health department to put public health first .

Our experts thought there was enough of a risk to immediately treat staff and regular customers with antibiotics.

Casual clients of the unnamed nightclub that night, meanwhile, are left wondering, without knowing, if they might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It would be a shame if a business lost money through no fault of its own.

Still, there must already be a lot of speculation among the young people who frequent such clubs.

And a warning issued by Sider on Friday about common activities like sharing smokes has to send a chill through every nightclub in the area.

If there's a price to pay for erring on the side of caution, so be it. Nothing is dearer than life itself.

Brian Caldwell's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be heard on 96.7 CHYM-FM Tuesday at 7:50 a.m. and can be reached at the Record, 894-2231, ext. 656, or by e-mail: bcaldwell@southam.ca.