HC Deb 05 February 1987 vol 109 cc803-5W
Mrs. Renee Short

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is following to ensure that HIV infected women receive proper counselling about the risks to future children and advice about birth control or access to abortion if they wish it.

Mr. Newton

The provision of counselling is the responsibility of the clinician dealing with a person with HIV infection. The chief medical officer gave advice on counselling in the context of HIV infection in his letter CMO(86)18 sent to all doctors on 2 December 1986. The Government-funded training courses for counsellors include material on these matters to enable their students adequately to counsel women identified as being infected with HIV.

Mrs. Renée Short

Short asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proposals he has to educate young people about AIDS.

Mr. Newton

Part of the Government's public education campaign is specifically aimed at young people, including advertisements and features on radio, in the cinema and in teenage magazines. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science has also made it clear that schools, too, have a responsibility to inform pupils of the facts about AIDS.

The effectiveness of these initiatives is being closely monitored, and the results wil be taken into account in planning further phases of the compaign.

Mr. William Powell

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons who committed suicide during 1986 were known or believed to be carriers of AIDS.

Mr. Newton

The data for 1986 on death by suicide will be processed later this year when complete but it will not be possible to identify all cases where the person was infected with the AIDS virus.

Mr. Merchant

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the latest cumulative total, broken down by sex, of the number of (a) deaths from and (b) confirmed diagnosis of AIDS in Britain and also figures for victims not in high risk groups.

Mr. Newton

By the end of December 1986 the communicable disease surveillance centre of the Public Health Laboratory Service had received reports on 610 diagnosed cases of AIDS in the United Kingdom. In 293 of these cases the patient had died. These figures have been analysed by transmission characteristic and by sex of patient as follows:

Number of Cases Number of Deaths
Transmission Characteristic Male Female Total
Homosexual/bisexual 538 — 538 244
Intravenous drug abuser (IVDA) 7 2 9 2
Homosexual and IVDA 6 — 6 4
Haemophiliac 25 — 25 19
Recipient of blood:
abroad 3 3 6 5
Recipient of blood:
United Kingdom 3 1 4 4
Heterosexual:
Presumed infected abroad 9 5 14 9
Presumed infected in United Kingdom 1 3 4 3
Child of HIV antibody positive mother 1 2 3 2
Other — 1 1 1
Totals 593 17 610 293

Mr. Cohen

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if the AIDS leaflet distributed to households will be printed in languages other than English; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Newton

The leaflet is currently available in Welsh. Consideration is being given to its production in a number of other languages.

Mr. Alexander

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what extra resources have been allocated to regional health authorities to help to deal with AIDS.

Mr. Fowler

In addition to the continued £20 million programme of public education already announced, of which £12 million is planned to fall in 1987–88, we are making available a further £7 million to health authorities for the treatment, care and counselling of victims and carriers of AIDS. Further allocations will be announced in due course for other AIDS-related services including those of the public health laboratory service and voluntary bodies working in this field.

Details of the £7 million allocation to health authorities are:

(1986–87 allocations)
Treatment and counselling £'000 £'000
N.W. Thames region 2,500 1,000
N.E. Thames region 1,200 1,045
S.E. Thames region 700 500
Haemophilia reference centres 280 270
Counselling training programme 200 100
Nurse training (English National Board) 20 15
Drug abuse counselling, etc 1,300 —
Other projects 800 115