HC Deb 30 June 1977 vol 934 cc302-3W
Miss Joan Lestor

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the figures showing the number of cases of whooping cough recorded for each year commencing 10 years before vaccination against whooping cough was introduced and up until the latest date for which figures are available.

Mr. Moyle

Whooping cough immunisation was introduced by many local health authorities from 1942 onwards and on a national scale in 1957.

Serial tables showing numbers of whooping cough cases notified in England and Wales in each year since the disease became notifiable in 1939 have been published regularly in the Registrar General's annual volumes — Statistical Reviews Part 1, Table 28 (1940-49), Table 31 (1950–57), Table 29 (1958–73) and publication, Scries MB2, No. 1, Table 1 (1974–75). Also, "Whooping-Cough Vaccination, Review of the Evidence on Whooping-Cough Vaccination by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation", published recently by my Department, contains all of these figures and similar information for Scotland. These publications are available in the Library.