§ Mr. Viantasked the Minister of Health whether the cases entered in the London Fever Hospital records as diphtheria observation are reported to the Registrar-General and recorded by him as diphtheria notifications.
§ Mr. WillinkIn such a case as my hon. Friend mentions notification is the responsibility of the practitioner concerned. If he is of opinion that it is a case calling for notification he is required to send a notice to the appropriate Medical Officer of Health. The Registrar-General receives returns from Medical Officers of Health only. I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford Central on 1st March last.
43W
§ Mr. A. Edwardsasked the Minister of Health what is his estimate of the number of children under five and between five and 15 years of age who were inoculated against diphtheria down to the end of 1943; and whether he will devise a method for removing from these records all children who reached the age of 15 in 1940, 1941 and 1942.
§ Mr. WillinkThe numbers of children inoculated against diphtheria in a given period under local authority arrangements are not estimates but actual figures supplied by the authorities of the numbers of children immunised in each six-monthly period. The totals of these figures from January, 1940, to December, 1943 (the last half-yearly returns being not yet quite complete) were approximately 1,680,000 children under five and 3,136,000 betwen five and 15 at the date of immunisation. The suggestion in the last part of the question would be very laborious to 'carry out and I do not feel justified in adopting it. As to estimates of the percentage of the child population protected against diphtheria I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford Central (Mr. Leach) on 6th April.