HC Deb 14 May 1985 vol 79 cc117-8W
Mr. Dobson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list each case or outbreak of suspected or confirmed legionnaire's disease notified to his Department since 1 April giving, in each case, the date the Department was notified, the number of persons affected and the number of deaths.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

An outbreak of influenza at Stafford was reported to our Department on 29 April. On 3 May it was confirmed that this outbreak included cases of legionnaire's disease. So far 52 cases of the disease have been definitely confirmed and 13 of these have died.

Other cases notified to our Department since 1 April 1985 were:

Date Notified No. of Cases Deaths
Portsmouth 5 May 1985 3 1
Bristol 9 May 1985 1 1
Birmingham 9 May 1985 1 1

It is not normal practice for the communicable disease surveillance centre to notify our Department of all sporadic cases of the disease. Isolated cases occur from time to time in various parts of the country and they only report as a matter of course clusters of cases or individual cases which give rise to particular concern. The centre tells us that three further cases have been reported to them since 1 April:

No. of Cases Deaths
Leicester 1 0
Sheffield 1 0
London 1 0