§ Dr. HarrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many notified malaria cases there have been in each year since the abolition of NHS prescriptions for malaria chemoprophylaxis. [3802]
§ Ms JowellAn amendment to the regulations covering the provision of malarial prophylaxis came into force on February 1995 and since then travellers have to pay for their anti-malarial drugs. The number of cases of malaria reported in the United Kingdom for the last 10 years is given in the table. There have been 325 cases of malaria reported to the Malaria Reference Laboratory for the period January to March 1997; this compares to 397 cases reported for the same period in 1996 and 314 in 1995. The number of cases of malaria varies each year and reflects the variations in transmission in the endemic areas as well as the number of people travelling to malarious areas. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Number of cases of malaria reported in the UK to the Malaria Reference Laboratory, 1987–1996: Year Cases of malaria 1987 1,816 1988 1,674 1989 1,987 1990 2,096 1991 2,332 1992 1,629 1993 1,922 1994 1,887 1995 2,055 1996 2,500