Whooping Cough (Hansard, 25 February 1977)

§ Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will give the estimate of the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination of the approximate number of cases of whooping cough, from which one case of brain damage is likely to arise; and if he will publish the evidence for the estimate;

(2) if, pursuant to his statement in the House on 8th February, he will state whether the four cases of brain damage which the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination estimates arise each year from whooping cough, are cases of temporary or permanent brain damage;

(3) if he requested the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination to follow up the reported adverse reactions to the whooping-cough vaccine; whether they did so at his request or independently; what action was taken in this follow-up; and if he will make a statement on the results of such further investigations;

(4) if he will publish in the Official Report details of the continuing study in the North-West Thames Region of whooping-cough vaccination, giving the purpose of and the methods used in the study; and if he will arrange for the publication of an interim report of the information obtained so far;

(5) if he will publish in the Official Report details of adverse reactions fol- 728W lowing administration of a vaccine containing the whooping-cough component for the 11 years 1964 to 1974, which were reported to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines;

(6) if the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination took into account the study in the British Medical Journal by Miller and Fletcher of 8,000 cases of whooping cough; whether the Joint Committee has any unpublished evidence from its survey of complications that might have led to permanent brain damage other than the two reported cases of encephalitis, of which one is of doubtful origin, and both of whom recovered.