Waiting Lists (Hansard, 20 July 1990)

§ Mr. Ralph Howell
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the number of persons on hospital waiting lists per 1,000 persons within(a) Norwich district health authority, (b) East Anglian regional health authority and (c) all district health authorities in England.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
The information requested has been placed in the Library. The waiting list per thousand resident population may be misleading because a significant, though varying, proportion of patients on the waiting list are referred by general practitioners in other districts. The relevant population for comparison is therefore the "catchment" population which in many cases varies substantially from the resident population.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has on the number of people who have been treated for psychiatric or physical injuries following harassment for being HIV-positive.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
This information is not collected centrally.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list all projects in the United Kingdom of which he is aware involved in researching the AIDS virus, together with their expenditure, noting specifically where the Government have financed or partly financed them.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
The chief scientist of the Department of Health chairs interdepartmental meetings to discuss Government-funded AIDS/HIV research. Under the auspices of this committee, "HIV Infection and AIDS in the UK: Overview of Government Funded AIDS Research" has been compiled. A copy has been placed in the Library.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken to contain the HIV-2 virus; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
We are firmly committed to taking effective action to minimise the spread of HIV. All the possible health measures in place, including health education, are as relevant to HIV 2 as they are to HIV 1.
All blood donations have been screened for HIV 1 and 2 as a combined test since 1 June 1990. However, HIV 2 is not considered to be a significant problem in the United Kingdom, nor for the rest of Europe, except Portugal where there appear to be roughly equal numbers of HIV 1 and HIV 2 positive donors. Many countries do not screen for HIV 2, including the United States of America.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria are being used to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising the dangers of AIDS in the media.

§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley
AIDS mass media public education campaigns are evaluated by continuing independent market research consisting of interviews with a sample of the population. This measures public awareness, comprehension and acceptability of campaign advertising. This research, which began in 1986, also includes surveys of respondents' claimed heterosexual behaviour, including condom use, and a survey764W undertaken in venues attended by homosexual men to gauge their response to advertising specifically directed towards them.
Other indicators include: the number and nature of calls to the national AIDS helpline; and new attendances at genito-urinary medicine clinics.