HC Deb 27 April 1995 vol 258 cc624-5W
Mr. Burden

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the position in respect of eradication of the wild polio virus from the United Kingdom; and if she will make a statement. [21320]

Mr. Sackville

The World Health Organisation considers the United Kingdom as being one of those countries which have eliminated polio due to wild virus. This is due to the great success of our childhood immunisation programme which has resulted in the incidence of childhood diseases being at their lowest ever levels. Today, 95 per cent. of all children have been unimmunised against polio by two years of age. However, despite this achievement, nobody should remain immunised against polio, whatever age they are. Unimmunised people can be at some risk of catching polio from recently immunised babies if standard hygiene procedures are not carefully followed; travellers to areas of the world where polio is still endemic should ensure that they are appropriately protected.

Mr. Burden

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what medical research her Department is aware of suggesting that a return to the inactivated polio vaccine would reduce the remote risk of vaccine damage to children; and whether this position is being reviewed. [21326]

Mr. Bowis

Oral polio vaccine and inactivated polio vaccine are both efficacious vaccines. However, whereas both vaccines provide protection against poliomyelitis for the individual immunised, only OPV produces "herd immunity' whereby susceptible contacts are protected as well. OPV is the vaccine used in the United Kingdom.

On average there are between one and two vaccine-associated cases of poliomyelitis reported in England and Wales each year. During 1994–95 over 7 million doses of OPV were issued to the national health service. The National Institute of Biological Standards and Controls undertakes research on the neurovirulence of oral polio vaccine. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation keeps matters such as vaccine-associated poliomyelitis under careful review and believes that OPV is the most appropriate product for United Kingdom circumstances. OPV is the vaccine recommended by World Health Organisation for global polio eradication.