The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department said that a girl attending the Sacred Heart school in St Julian’s was diagnosed with scarlet fever. The report was filed late on Wednesday evening, a few hours after the department had denied there were any cases of scarlet fever when contacted by this newspaper.

Readers had called The Malta Independent on Wednesday afternoon saying that there were rumours of an “outbreak” of scarlet fever among students at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in St Julian’s. The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Department and the Sacred Heart school both firmly denied such rumours on Wednesday afternoon, but yesterday the department said that one case had been identified in the primary school.

One case cannot be classified as an outbreak, a spokesman for the department said, but the student was instructed not to attend school for five days. The department said that there was no need for the class to be closed as a precautionary measure.

Scarlet fever is caused by an infection from streptococcus bacteria, normally occurring after a throat or skin infection. In the past, this disease was considered to be a serious one but nowadays the diagnosed cases are relatively mild due to developments in medicine.

Earlier this year, in January two children attending the same class in Gozo were diagnosed with scarlet fever. The department reported other cases in March, in another school in Gozo.