§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what evidence is available to his Department regarding the connection between whooping cough and permanent severe brain damage in children;
(2) what progress is being made with the development of a new whooping cough vaccine;
(3) when the decision was taken to postpone the trials of new whooping cough vaccines; on which vaccines there were to have been trials; for what reasons the trials were postponed; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. CurrieI shall let the right hon. Member have replies as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to his answer of 6 November, Official Report, column 591, what would be the estimated cost of extracting information which would relate the number of awards in which the claimant stated that the vaccine was for whooping cough or in part for whooping cough to the year of vaccination.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to his answer of 6 November, Official Report, column 593, how many of the 17 children with an immediate history of whooping cough, who were admitted to hospital for acute neurological disease, were left with severe brain damage.
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§ Mrs. CurrieOne of the children died, one had major neurological sequelae, and one had mild speech delay twelve months after the illness. The remaining 14 were all reported normal at that stage.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for each five-year period since 1957 the number of children who have died from whooping cough.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe information is given in the table. The statistics do not include any deaths from the late effects of whooping cough, where the interval between the onset of the disease and death exceeds one year.
Number of deaths at age under 15 years with underlying cause of death as whooping cough1 in each quinquennium since 1957
England and Wales
Period Number of deaths 1957–61 200 1962–66 146 1967–71 88 1972–76 32 1977–81 37 1982–862 29 1 International Classification of Diseases 6th, 7th revisions 056 (1957–67). 7th, 8th revisions 033 (1968–86). 2 Includes a provisional figure of 5 deaths for 1986.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for each five-year period since 1957 the number of children given the whooping cough vaccine or one which had a whooping cough element.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe information requested is given in the table:
Completed primary courses of whooping cough vaccination (including multiple vaccines containing a whooping cough element)
England and Wales
Years Thousands 1958–62 2,893 1963–67 3,402 1968–72 2,982 1973–77 1,742 1978–82 1,494 1983 425 1984 410 1985 434 The percentage of children vaccinated against whooping cough rose from 31 per cent. in 1978 to 65 per cent. in 1985.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of whooping cough there have been in the last four-year period for which figures are available; how many deaths there were; how many children were admitted to hospital at what estimated cost; and during this period how many children under one year of age received the whooping cough vaccine or one with a whooping cough element.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe information is as follows:
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England 1982 1983 1984 1985 Cases of whooping cough 0–14 years 60,000 17,500 5,000 19,500
1982 1983 1984 1985 All ages 62,500 18,300 5,200 20,300 Deaths due to whooping cough 0–14 13 5 1 4 All ages 13 5 1 4 Children under one year of age completing a primary course of whooping cough vaccination (including multiple vaccines containing a whooping cough element) 30,000 29,200 30,500 37,400
Estimated number of discharges and deaths, and mean duration of stay of in-patients, aged 0–14 years, with main diagnosis of whooping cough, from non-psychiatric hospitals Year Estimated number Mean duration of stay (days) 1984 1,080 6.0 1983 2,630 6.3 1982 5,900 6.2 The cost of one in-patient in an ACUTE hospital is £132.23 per day.
The 1982 figures reflect a low rate of vaccination and a correspondingly high rate of infection during an epidemic. When the next epidemic began in 1985, the improved uptake of vaccination helped to reduce the rate of infection. There is every reason to hope that with further improvement in the uptake the disease will become relatively rare in this country, as in others with successful vaccination programmes.