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Khabarovsk region’s Governor Viktor Ishayev on Wednesday appealed for help to Russia’s Academy of Medical Science due to an outbreak of viral meningitis, with over 400 children currently hospitalized in Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, news reports said.

The regional administration requested Moscow’s virus experts and epidemiologists assist in analyzing the current outbreak situation, Gazeta.ru cited the region’s Vice-Governor and the Head of the region’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Commission Oleg Lekhovitser as saying.

The outbreak started in late June, with a total of about 800 children diagnosed with meningitis in the Khabarovsk region over the past two months.

The majority of patients infected are from Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the region’s Nanaysky County. Currently in the city of Khabarovsk 150 children remain hospitalized.

According to Head of the regional Department of Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor (Russia’s consumer watchdog) Vladimir Ott, the infection might have been caused by the water in the Amur River. According to Ott, this year the virus and epidemiological situation on the river is extremely unfavorable. Bathing in the river was prohibited by the region’s governor on advice from the sanitary services on June 26.

“The first children became infected after either bathing in the Amur River or after drinking non-boiled tap water. The infection is spread both through water and by air,” Ott said.

Meanwhile, the summer vacation for first through eighth grade students in the Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur secondary schools will be prolonged for ten more days through September 11, the region’s Sanitary and Epidemiological Commission decided at a Wednesday meeting, a statement from the press center of the regional administration said.

“The classes postponement is a preventive measure aimed to stop the infection from spreading any further,” Oleg Lekhovitser said according to the statement. The statement also reported that, “there is no outbreak of meningitis in the region.”

Meningitis is a contagious illness caused by bacterial or viral infections. Fatal cases of viral meningitis are rare, with most patients completely recovering within seven to ten days.