§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement regarding the ending of the practice of publishing weekly the salmonella food poisoning figures, by the communicable disease surveillance centre in the PHLS communicable disease reports.
§ Mr. DorrellThe change to monthly reporting of gastro-intestinal illness in the communicable disease report is part of a programme of general operational changes designed to produce more detailed and comprehensive reports.
§ Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how the figures for salmonella infections published in the PHLS-SVS update on salmonella infections are calculated; and whether the basis for calculation is different from that used for the communicable disease reports.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyTo obtain the most complete picture possible, the public health laboratory service monitors the frequency of food poisoning in this country via a number of different surveillance systems. The figures published in the PHLS-SVS update on salmonella infection and those in the communicable disease report are both elements of PHLS surveillance. The two sets of304W figures are obtained in different ways. It is clearly noted in the "Update" that they cannot be directly compared. Moreover, trends cannot be deduced from any single set of figures but only by comparison of data over a prolonged period of time.
The "Update" figures relate to human isolates of salmonella sent to the PHLS Division of enteric pathogens for detailed identification and phage typing. The data in the CDR are derived from reports sent to the PH LS communicable disease surveillance centre.