§ Sir Dudley Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are taken to ensure the accuracy of the registering of deaths which have occurred as a result of the individual concerned having contracted AIDS; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonI have been asked to reply.
537WClinicians are invited to report, confidentially, to the communicable disease surveillance centre, all cases of AIDS, including deaths from the disease. These reports show that up to the end of 1986 there were 285 deaths due to AIDS in England and Wales. Over the same period there were 220 deaths registered in England and Wales where cause of death has been given as AIDS or a similar term has been mentioned on the death certificate. The reasons for the discrepancy are currently being investigated.