§ Mr. GillTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the cases of food poisoning caused by the consumption of meat in each of the past 10 years, indicating the number of people who(a) were affected and (b) died in each case. [46124]
§ Ms JowellInformation on individual, sporadic cases of food poisoning is not available. The Public Health Laboratory Service's (PHLS) current surveillance system for food poisoning outbreaks was introduced in 1992. Information on the number of outbreaks associated with meat where the suspect vehicle is known is in the table. Also included in the table is information on(a) numbers affected and (b)the number of deaths. The PHLS collects data on outbreaks involving multiple cases and publishes quarterly information in its Communicable Disease Review, copies of which are available in the Library.
General outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease associated with the consumption of poultry or meat and meat products England and Wales 1992–96 Number of outbreaks Number affected in outbreaks Number died in outbreaks 1992 82 2,410 2 1993 62 1,515 2 1994 51 1,224 1 1995 61 1,859 6 1996 60 1,134 12 Notes:
Data are provisional
Other vehicles may have been implicated in each outbreak
Number affected is those with diarrhoea and/or vomiting with or without any other symptoms. Not necessarily laboratory confirmed
Source:
PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre
Gastrointestinal Diseases Section