§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (4) if he has made any attempt to assess whether 694W doctors implement the recommendations on minimum age for vaccination given by his Department; and, in particular, whether they do so in the period just after a change in the recommended age;
(5) if he is satisfied that the recommendations on minimum age for immunisation are generally implemented; and if he will make a statement;
(6) whether his Department informed doctors when the strength of the whooping-cough vaccine was doubled; and if it was related to change in the minimum age for immunisation from three months to six months;
(10) whether he is satisfied that all immunised children are given the absorbed vaccine and not the plain whooping-cough vaccine; and if he will make a statement;
(13) in which areas of the country medical officers of health are discouraging the routine use of the whooping-cough vaccine; and whether there is any evidence of vaccination in the incidence of disease in these areas compared with similar ones.
§ Mr. Ennals,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19th January 1977; Vol. 924 c. 251–2], circulated the following information:
A recommendation that doctors should use absorbed whooping-cough vaccine was contained in CMO letter 17/74 issued in June 1974; but the final decision must be left to the clinical judgment of the doctor concerned. It is for manufacturers, not my Department, to inform doctors of changes in the potency of vaccines; the change in potency mentioned by my hon. Friend was unrelated to the recommended change in the age for commencement of vaccination. The implementation of such recommendations is a matter for doctors themselves, but available information suggests that they are responsive to advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Area medical officers have the general responsibility for vaccination programmes. As far as is known none is discouraging whooping-cough vaccination.