§ Mr. Dunnettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish in the Official Report tables showing for each social services authority 708W the report by the regional public health authority in Cambridge that one in five women and one in eight men examined at an East Anglian venereal clinic reacted positively to blood tests designed to establish the presence of this, or very similar bacilli.
§ Mr. MoyleThe blood test referred to in the report concerned, which I have read, was designed to establish the presence in human beings, not of the coccobacillus responsible for contagious equine metritis but rather of antibodies to this or a similar organism. The coccobacillus itself has not been found in men or women. The positive results reported in relation to the presence of antibodies are indirect evidence of human contact with the coccobacillus or a similar organism, but no clinical evidence of infection in humans has been found. The question of treatment therefore does not arise.