§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of TB were reported in the UK in(a) 1999 and (b) 2000. [157871]
§ Yvette CooperThe number of reported cases for all types of tuberculosis in the United Kingdom for 1999 was 6,701 and 7,264 (provisional) for 2000.
This information is publicly available. Information for England and Wales is published on the PHLS website (www.phls.org.uk), Scotland publish their data in the Scottish Health Statistics booklet and Northern Ireland publish their data via their Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre.
§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of drug resistant TB were reported in the UK in(a) 1999 and (b) 2000. [157870]
§ Yvette CooperThe 1998 Public Health Laboratory Service tuberculosis survey found that there has been no increase in the proportion of strains of TB resistant to one or more of the standard anti-TB drugs since 1994. The United Kingdom has heightened its surveillance of drug and multi-drug resistant TB through a scheme co-ordinated by the PHLS, through the UK Mycobacterial Resistance Network or MYCOBNET.
Information taken from MYCOBNET shows that 33 cases of drug resistant tuberculosis (ie resistant to standard antibiotic drugs) were reported in the UK in 1999 and 36 (provisional figure) in 2000. These figures show a slight decrease in the number from previous years, which have averaged at 49 cases per year since 1994.