IPOH: The Perak Health Department wants the operators of the Lubuk Timah waterfall in Simpang Pulai, where a teenager may have contracted leptospirosis, to keep the place clean at all times.

However, department director Datuk Dr Hassan Merican confirmed that the site had not been ordered to close.

He said the last time they monitored and took samples from the waterfall was in March this year.

“We went there to take samples, which is routine work for the department.

“At the time, it was positive for leptospirosis but there were no cases related to it.’’

He said the department only instructed the waterfall operator to ensure that the place is clean, adding that isolating leptospira from water samples is not uncommon.

“The emphasis was on environmental sanitation to prevent rat infestation,” he told reporters during Ops X Aedes at the state secretariat here yesterday.

An outing to a waterfall last week, believed to be Lubuk Timah, landed 19-year-old Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Mustafa in hospital with suspected leptospirosis.

The teenager, from the National Youth Skills Institute in Jitra, was rushed to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital at about 3am on Sunday.

His mother Siti Marziah Hassan, 35, said she and her son had gone to a relative’s house in Ipoh, Perak, on July 2.

She said about seven of them went for a swim at the waterfall.

A few days later, Shahrul fell sick with severe abdominal pains, vomiting and diarrhoea.

State Health Department director Datuk Dr Norhizan Ismail said the teenager was receiving specialist treatment and that the case had been classified as suspected leptospirosis.