Vaccinations (Hansard, 26 April 2002)

§ Ms Atherton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the possible positive impact of pneumococcal vaccinations for the over-65s; [51131]
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(2) what plans he has to introduce a 65 years and over age recommendation for pneumococcal vaccinations. [51130]

§ Yvette Cooper
The potential efficacy and cost effectiveness of introducing universal vaccination with pneumococcal polysaccharide for everyone over 65 years is under investigation by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). JCVI will meet to review the evidence once these studies have been completed and make their recommendations to the Government.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each of the last five years for which figures are available, the number of people aged(a) 0 to five, (b) six to 15, (c) 16 to 24, (d) 25 to 34, (e) 35 to 44, (f) 45 to 54, (g) 55 to 64, (h) 65 to 74, (i) 75 to 84 and (j) 85 and over, who contracted (i) pneumococcal and (ii) meningitis broken down by (A) region and (B) health authority. [47531]

§ Yvette Cooper
[holding answer 10 April 2002]: There is a statutory requirement to notify infectious diseases (listed on the Public Health Laboratory Service website www.phls.org.uldfacts/NOIDS/noidlist.htm) to the local consultant in communicable disease control. Reports received through this notification system are processed and collated by the communicable disease surveillance centre and are based on clinical symptoms only. These reports do not relate to laboratory confirmed cases.
The total number of notifications of pneumococcal and meningococcal meningitis for each of the last 5 years by age and region is shown in Tables 1 and 2. Copies of which have been placed in the library. As the number of cases of meningococcal and pneumococcal meningitis for each health authority broken down by age is very low (and zero in a large number of cases) annual totals by health authority have been provided (Table 3) copies of which are also in the Library. Please note data provided for 2001 is provisional and may change.