§ Mr. HannamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of flu' were reported in each year since 1982.
§ Mrs. CurrieI regret that this information is not held centrally.
Since influenza is not a notifiable disease no national statistics are collected; however the communicable disease surveillance centre does monitor the types of virus in circulation. During the winter of 1987–88 this sample monitoring indicated that the level of influenza infection in England and Wales was relatively low. The last epidemic was in 1975–76.