§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the date at which his Department approved the use of the whooping cough vaccine ; and if he will estimate the number of people who have since been vaccinated.
§ Mr. AlisonImmunisation against whooping cough was introduced on a national scale in July 1957 following a report of the Medical Research Council's committee on whooping cough vaccine and all local health authorities were asked to offer this vaccination as part of their arrangements under Section 26 of the National Health Service Act, 1946. About 9¼ million children under 16 years of age completed primary courses of whooping cough vaccination in England and Wales up to the end of 1972.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what evidence he has received on the effectiveness of the whooping cough vaccine.
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§ Mr. AlisonVaccination against whooping cough was introduced on a national scale in England and Wales in 1957. Since then there has been a marked decline in the disease from 85,017 notifications in England and Wales to 2,398 (provisional figure) in 1973.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will estimate the number who have been seriously handicapped by the use of the whooping cough vaccine ; and how many of these have suffered brain damage.
§ Mr. AlisonI regret that information on which reliable estimates could be based is not available.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if his Department has at any time issued advice to medical officers of health and general practitioners on the possibility of adverse reaction to whooping cough vaccine and the form and timing of such reaction ;
(2) if his Department has at any time requested or received advice on the particular characteristics of children which may increase the risk of an adverse reaction to vaccination and immunisation and, if there are such characteristics, what steps have been taken to publicise them.
§ Mr. AlisonYes. The Standing Medical Advisory Committee has prepared a memorandum on immunisation against infectious disease incorporating advice received from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and I am sending a copy to the hon. Member. This memorandum which was circulated to medical officers of health, senior administrative medical officers of RHBs and all general practitioners in July 1972 includes advice on the possibility of adverse reactions to whooping cough vaccine and recommends that certain children should not receive the vaccine.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if his Department has at any time issued circulars to medical officers of health or general practitioners asking for information on the incidence of adverse reactions to the whooping cough vaccine ;
(2) what steps have been taken by his Department to ensure that it is made 174W aware of the number of cases of serious adverse reaction to the whooping cough vaccine ;
(3) if he is satisfied that the machinery which informs him of the number of cases of serious adverse reaction to vaccination and immunisation is working satisfactorily ;
(4) what steps the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has taken to assess the incidence of serious adverse reaction to vaccination and immunisation.
§ Mr. AlisonThe Committee on Safety of Medicines regularly writes to all medical practitioners asking them to report adverse reactions to medicines including vaccines. A special circular was sent asking for reports on such reactions to vaccines in particular in July 1967. The booklet on "Immunisation against Infectious Disease" also contains a request to report adverse reactions to the committee.
The committee and my right hon. Friend are not wholly satisfied with the proportion of adverse reactions voluntarily reported by doctors but the reports do assist us to identify serious new problems that may arise, and to assess the pattern of adverse reactions of different immunisation procedures. They are not adequate, however, to enable us to estimate the total number of reactions. The information received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines is made available in statistical form to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
We are considering further how our knowledge of the incidence of adverse reactions to immunisation can be improved.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many adverse reaction forms relating specifically to the whooping cough vaccine have been received from doctors and paediatricians by the Committee on Safety of Medicines.
§ Mr. AlisonThe Committee on Safety of Medicines and its predecessor, the Committee on Safety of Drugs, have received no reports of adverse reactions to whooping cough vaccine alone. Whooping cough vaccine is almost invariably given as part of a triple vaccine against diphtheria and tetanus or occasionally 175W as a quadruple vaccine with poliomyelitis vaccine in addition. It is not possible to ascribe any reaction to an individual vaccine. The committee has received 503 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccinations which include whooping cough vaccine, the greater proportion of which were minor.