HC Deb 14 October 1943 vol 392 cc1072-3W
Mr. Viant

asked the Minister of Health how many cases of diphtheria have occurred since 1st July at Seaham Harbour; whether any sanitary defects had been complained of in the houses from which the cases were removed; and have such defects been remedied?

Mr. E. Brown

It will be necessary to make local inquiries to obtain the particulars for which my hon. Friend asks and I will communicate with him as soon as possible.

Mr. Viant

asked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that statements advocating diphtheria immunisation, issued with official sanction, include statistical erorrs, such as calculating the attack rate of diphtheria in the immunised and unimmunised on populations of immunised and unimmunised children as at the end of 1942 while the cases on which the rate was calculated occurred over a period of two years during which the numbers of immunised and unimmunised constantly changed, the latter being reduced and the former increased; and whether he will get a statistical expert to calculate the attack rates on populations as they are at the time of the diphtheria cases and taking into consideration the other factors that may affect these rates?

Mr. Brown

I would refer my hon. Friend to the explanation regarding statistics about diphtheria immunisation contained in the summary report of the Ministry of Health for the year ended 31st March, 1943 (Cmd. 6468).

Mr. Viant

asked the Minister of Health how many cases of diphtheria were recorded in immunised children between January, 1940, and 3oth June 1943; and how many fatal cases were recorded in the immunised in 1942 and the first six months of 1943?

Mr. Brown

Returns from local authorities in England and Wales for periods between 1st January, 1940, and 30th June, 1943, show that among approximately 107,000 children who were notified during those periods as suffering from diphtheria approximately 9,500 in the aggregate had completed the course of immunisation. The returns for the year 1942 show that among approximately 1,530 children known by local authorities to have died from diphtheria in that period 41 had completed the course of immunisation. The corresponding provisional figures for the first six months of 1943 are 600 and 21.