§ Mr. Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of the disease toxicara canis are known to have occurred in the last year.
§ Dr. OwenToxocariasis, which is the human condition contracted from the worm toxocara canis, is not a notifiable188W disease under the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations and consequently no statistics are available. Cases of toxocariasis with serious complications are so rare that they are usually the subject of a paper in a medical journal. There have been only a few in the past 20 years and I am not aware of any cases of this nature being reported during the past year. I have no reason to suppose that the less serious cases are at all common.