The two teenage girls who recently died in northern Malaysia were not killed by the Japanese Encephalitis (JE), Health Ministry Director-General Ismail Merican confirmed Friday.

Test results released Thursday night showed the two 13-year-old girls from Tanah Merah in Kelantan state actually died of dengue and bacterial meningitis, Ismail said at a press conference in the administrative center of Putrajaya.

Ismail also briefed reporters on the latest development on the confirmed JE case. Norhayati Awang, 27, was earlier confirmed as having been infected with the JE virus by Kelantan health department, but new tests showed she was suffering more from dengue.

"Tests in the initial stage showed JE positive, as well as dengue. This has caused confusion and the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) had conducted a series of tests ... The tests now showed that the JE trend was declining while the dengue trend was rising," said the health director-general.

Talking about the latest woman patient who was admitted to local hospital two days earlier, Ismail said Rosmaini Mat Ali, 20, also from Tanah Merah, was probably suffering from dengue.

"Rosmaini is being treated for viral encephalitis but tests are being conducted by IMR to determine what is causing the disease ... There is a strong possibility that it could also be due to dengue, " Ismail said.

Ismail said dengue was more dangerous than JE. Last year 108 people died of dengue fever while only six people were killed by the JE virus in Malaysia, Ismail added.

The Malaysian Health Ministry has recently sent two virologists from IMR and National Public Health Laboratory to Kelantan to investigate the death of the two girls.

Source: Xinhua