AIDS (Hansard, 7 December 1987)

§ Mr. Butler
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what criteria he uses when deciding on the scale of resources to be made available to(a) health authorities for treatment and (b) the Health Education Authority for educational work in connection with AIDS over the next five years.

§ Mr. Newton
It is for health authorities to provide treatment services for AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses from within their general allocations. Where additional funds have been made available specifically to help meet AIDS treatment costs they have been directed to those regions carrying the heaviest case loads. Decisions will be made shortly on general allocations to health authorities for 1988–89 and on the allocation of earmarked money for AIDS-related services. Allocations are made on an annual basis and the costs of AIDS treatment services will be kept under reveiw.
Resources allocated to the Health Education Authority for AIDS public education in 1987–88 cover the costs of the operational plan based on the authority's initial AIDS strategy agreed by Ministers. Future funding will take account of the need to sustain levels of knowledge among the general public; to provide effective support to health professionals; and to provide specific information and advice for groups at particular risk.

§ Mr. Bernie Grant
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether any extra resources will be made available to local authorities arising from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's recent announcement and the increase in incidence of AIDS.

§ Mr. Newton
I refer the hon. Member to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Kent (Mr. Rowe) on 24 November at column130.

§ Mr. Butler
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest information about the(a) concentration and (b) contagiousness of the human immunovirus as found in the saliva of carriers.

§ Mr. Newton
I am advised that the human immunodeficiency virus can sometimes be detected in saliva of infected individuals. Precise quantification of this virus in saliva in those individuals in which it is present has not been performed. There is no evidence that saliva from a HIV-infected person is capable of being infectious to humans.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give details of the amount of money devoted currently and cumulatively to research work on AIDS in the United Kingdom; and what equivalent information he has for France, Germany and the United States of America.

§ Mr. Newton
It is estimated that expenditure on Government-funded research on AIDS in the United Kingdom in 1987–88 will be £10.5 million. Expenditure for the financial years 1984–85 to 1987–88 inclusive is estimated to total 13.8 million.
Information on the amount spent on AIDS research by non-governmental organisations in the United Kingdom is not available; nor are totals of Government and non-government expenditure in France, Germany and the United States of America.