§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has to increase public awareness of meningitis; [18879]
(2) what sums his Department has spent in each of the last three years on increasing public awareness of meningitis. [18880]
§ Mr. BoatengThe Chief Medical Officer (CMO) holds an annual press briefing for journalists to raise public, professional and media awareness of meningitis. CMO also writes to all doctors each year giving advice on the early diagnosis of suspected cases of meningococcal infection and stressing the need for immediate antibiotic treatment and urgent referral to hospital. The Department of Health contributes to the many articles in newspapers and the medical press, and television and radio programmes that appear during the winter increase in cases.
This year's briefing took place on 3 November. This year, we have also revised the Department's information leaflet entitled "Knowing about meningitis and septicaemia" available to the public from GPs' surgeries. Meningococcal infections peak with most cases in children under one year, and there is a second smaller peak in late teenagers. Extra information is, therefore, targeted in these areas. The Health Education Authority (HEA), funded by the Department, produces the leaflet "A Guide to Childhood Immunisations", which includes advice on recognising the signs and symptoms of meningitis and is provided to new parents. The HEA also produce a leaflet targeted at students, "Look out for your mate", which is distributed to colleges and universities. The Department provides funding to both the National Meningitis Trust and the Meningitis Research Foundation to support their valuable information work. Both organisations took part in this year's press briefing.
It is not possible to identify the amount spent on public awareness of meningitis separately as it is a key theme of the Department's, the HEA's and the meningitis charities', information campaigns at this time of year. The costs of preparing, printing and distributing leaflets and posters such as "A Guide to Childhood Immunisations" and "Look out for your mate" are subsumed within the HEA/DH contract covering immunisation awareness. Around one million copies of "A Guide to Childhood Immunisations", which is updated annually, are produced each year and around 1.2 million "Look out for your mate" leaflets and posters were distributed this year. 250,000 copies of the Department's leaflet were printed this year.