§ Mr. Nigel EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children have died from respiratory stress syndrome in each year since 1983.
§ Mr. SackvilleNumbers of deaths (underlying cause) from respiratory distress syndrome ICD1 769 for the years 1983 to 1991 is contained in the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys publication "Mortality statistics: cause" series DH2 nos. 10–18; copies of which are available in the Library. The information for 1992 is shown in the table. 738W
Number of deaths from Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ICD 769)1 for England and Wales, 19922 Age group3 Number Under 1 8 1 International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision. 2 Data from 1983 to 1992 are not comparable due to the changes to cause of death coding in 1986. From 1986 the number of deaths by cause excluded neonatal deaths, ie deaths of babies aged under 28 days. A new neonatal death certificate was introduced in January 1986, from which it is not possible to assign an underlying cause of death. Consequently, table 2 in series DH2 does not include neonatal deaths except in the figures for all causes. 3 Deaths occurred only in those aged under one.