The decision not to reveal details of an outbreak of the dangerous food-poisoning bug E.coli which has struck down at least 13 people is well-meant but misguided. Calderdale councillors and local MP Christine McCafferty are right to strongly criticise the cover-up by Kirklees and Calderdale Health Authority.

The authority says its decision to keep quiet about the outbreak, which has affected people aged between two and 79 in Bradford and Calderdale, was taken to avoid causing panic and because "all the cases we are going to get we have got".

That is a remarkably confident statement. How does it know it has contained the outbreak if it doesn't alert the public to it so that people can recognise the symptoms and come forward to have themselves properly treated? Unless the source is named, anyone suffering from the milder symptoms such as sickness and diarrhoea cannot tell whether or not they might have been affected by it - and, therefore, risk passing it on to others.

Parents of young children should be particularly angry, as should older people. These are the most vulnerable groups when hit by this most dangerous of food-poisoning bugs, which can at its worst cause kidney failure and even lead to death. Eight people have been affected badly enough to need hospital treatment, and one child remains seriously ill.

As Christine McCafferty says, these things always come out anyway. If they are covered up, rumour can lead to worse panic than full revelation of the facts. The health authority should now give the public credit for a bit of common sense and come clean.