JERUSALEM — Israeli health officials rushed to calm the public yesterday as they tried to determine whether a bacterial infection contributed to the deaths of dozens of patients in hospitals in recent months.The suspected outbreak in hospitals in Israel's centre has caused concern since it was first reported by Israeli TV on Tuesday night. Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, ran the banner headline "A dangerous germ has killed dozens of hospital patients" and Israeli radio stations devoted much of their air time to the subject.

But health officials said there was no threat to the general public, since the victims were already gravely ill with compromised immune systems.

Itamar Shalit, chairman of the Israeli Society for Infectious Diseases, told Israel Radio that a total of 200 people have been infected this year with the germ, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae, and half of them died. He did not say if the infection was the main cause of death in these cases.

"When such a problem arises, we have to check it, to examine it, and not make the public panic," Health Minister Yaacov Ben-Yizri told Israel Radio. "Even now there is no reason for panic."

Ben-Yizri said that the germ, which is resistant to antibiotics, poses no danger to healthy people even when they come in contact with infected people. Those who are endangered are those people with weakened immune systems who are hospitalised, he said.

"The ministry has not hidden information, and we're not talking here about something that is very new," said Boaz Lev, the ministry's deputy director. "We don't know how many died from the germ. It's hard to say that people who died from serious illnesses died from the infection."

Still, the ministry summoned hospital directors to an urgent meeting to discuss the situation.

Amos Yinnon, director of infectious disease unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, said there was a clear link between the infection and the deaths. But he said this was not new, as the bacteria was historically a killer of already sick people, striking down around a third of those contracting it in hospital.

The problem, he said, was combatting the bacteria, because the only drugs remaining to which it responded could themselves pose health risks.

"This particular bug is susceptible only to two anti-microbials, both of which may have side effects on the kidneys," Yinnon said. "If a person already has a shaky kidney function and they would need to treat him with one of these anti-microbials, there might be bad consequences for the kidneys."

He added, however, that there was no need for healthy people with friends or relatives in hospital, or for hospital staff, to stay away from medical facilities.

"There is no reason at all to tell people, 'Don't go and visit your father or grandfather or friends.' I don't think there is any particular reason not to go," Yinnon said.

This is not the first time Israeli news media have blown a health issue out of proportion. Last October, they gave great prominence to reports that five people who received flu shots had died. Experts then, too, noted that they had chronic diseases, and the number of deaths in that sector was not unusual,