QUETZALTENANGO, Guatemala (AP) _ An outbreak of meningitis at a hospital in Guatemala"s second largest city has left 13 newborns dead and five others seriously ill, officials said Saturday. The infants died over the past week after officials detected the outbreak in the maternity ward at Quetzaltenango"s largest public hospital.

The five others were being treated with antibiotics and were expected to recover. Meningitis attacks the spine and brain. The germ

enters the bloodstream through contact with the nose or throat discharges of an infected person. It can kill a person within a few weeks if left untreated. Officials think the disease was brought in by one of the mothers in the ward in early July, the hospital"s director of internal medicine, Rene Aceituno, said.

Hospital staff moved all the newborns to a new area and believe the outbreak now is under control. Workers, wearing masks, removed sheets, clothing, furniture and ceiling tiles from the infected area Friday. The outbreak has caused a panic in this largely Indian community some 125 miles southwest of Guatemala City. Local newspapers reported overcrowding in a half dozen other Quetzaltenango-area hospitals in the wake of the outbreak.

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