Influenza (Hansard, 8 March 2000)

§ Mr. Matthew Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his estimate of the number of cases of influenza per 100,000 of the population(a) in England and (b) in each health authority in England for each winter in each of the years from 1984–85 to 1999–2000; and if he will make a statement. [110798]

§ Yvette Cooper
The information requested is not collected centrally. Influenza activity in England is monitored through the Royal College of General Practitioners sentinel surveillance scheme, which records the number of first visits to participating general practitioners of patients with influenza-like illness. This allows calculation of a rate for those cases of influenza presenting in general practice at any given point during the year and allows comparisons with other years. It is not possible to estimate a total figure for cases of influenza each winter from these data. The information is not collected by health authority area.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of working days lost due to the recent flu outbreak. [111148]

§ Yvette Cooper
The information requested is not collected centrally.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which of the measures contained in the Government's pandemic contingency plans were 751W deployed during the recent flu outbreak, with particular reference to use of anti-virals to limit the spread of infection. [111147]

§ Yvette Cooper
We are in the interpandemic period (`phase zero' of the pandemic plan) and were throughout the winter period. The United Kingdom Health Department's Multiphase Contingency Plan for Pandemic Influenza was not implemented. A flu pandemic involves the emergence of a completely new strain of influenza virus and is a global phenomenon. We last saw a pandemic in 1968.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the arrangements that were put in place prior to the recent flu outbreak to protect(a) health workers and (b) at risk groups by means of vaccination. [111146]

§ Yvette Cooper
A record 8.6 million doses of vaccine were available prior to the winter flu season, of which 7.8 million doses have been distributed to meet orders. Data for flu immunisation uptake among the risk groups is derived from the General Practice Research Database by the Public Health Laboratory Service. Recent changes to the database mean it is not yet possible to provide uptake rates for last year. We expect data to be available within the next few months. In the past, vaccine uptake has not been nearly as high as the Department would like and the Chief Medical Officer has already announced that he will be looking at ways of improving uptake in the future.
National Health Service trusts were advised that they could include immunising healthcare staff as part of their winter planning last year. The decision to offer the vaccine and which groups of staff this should be offered to, were matters for local decision. Employers were not required to collect information on take up.