§ Mr. Tierneyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what representations he has received from the Birmingham Health Authority requesting a national register of known typhoid carriers;
(2) if, in the light of the recent outbreak of typhoid in a Birmingham hospital, he will take urgent action to protect both patients and staff in maternity hospitals from carriers of typhoid.
§ Dr. OwenMy Department has received and replied to a letter on this matter from the area health authority. Identification of otherwise unknown typhoid carriers can only be made by relatively expensive routine screening, for example of admissions to hospitals, but this could not detect all of the small numbers of such carriers. Individual health and local authorities commonly maintain registers of known typhoid carriers and it is for them to consider whether other precautionary measures are appropriate. My Department would be willing to discuss the question of registers further with the authorities recently involved.