Preliminary findings regarding the cause of the death of 37-year-old Port Chalmers man Michael Adam on July 10 have shown that the primary cause of his death was pneumonia.
Coroner Peter Ryan, of Hamilton, who was relieving the local Dunedin coroner David Crerar last week, said tests from the postmortem and a pathology report showed the pneumonia caused a secondary inflammation of the meninges (membranes around the brain and spinal cord) - known as meningitis.
Otago and Southland medical officer of health Dr John Holmes said meningitis, different from meningococcal disease, was caused by a variety of things including viruses and bacteria.
The cause of Mr Adam's meningitis was not meningococcal bacteria, was not contagious and members of the public should not be concerned about any spread of infection.
There may have been some confusion resulting from the fact some family members were provided with precautionary preventive drugs before a probable cause of death was known, he said.
Mr Ryan said his findings would be finalised after the results of further tests from pathologists and ESR were received.
