§ Mr. ChaytorTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the total number of outbreaks of food poisoning for each of the last three years, listed by known infective agent.[35761]
§ Ms JowellThe information requested is given in the table.
General outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease reported to the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre for England and Wales Number of foodborne outbreaks by organism and year Organism 1994 1995 11996 21997 Salmonella enteritidis PT4 52 55 47 58 S. enteritidis other phage types 11 9 14 33 Salmonella typhimurium 18 14 10 16 S. virchow 5 4 1 2 Other Salmonella serotypes 5 8 9 5 Clostridium perfringens 21 18 18 23 Small round structured virus 17 14 7 7 Bacillus cereus 7 8 4 3 Scombrotoxin 8 9 6 7 Escherichia coli O157 — 5 7 4 Campylobacter 5 3 6 5 Staphylococcus aureus 2 1 5 — Bacillus subtilis 1 2 2 2 Small round virus 3 1 — — Shigella sonnei 1 — — — Astrovirus 1 — 1 — Cryptosporidium — 1 — — Rotavirus 1 — — — Shigella flexneri — — 1 — Other 2 1 1 1 Unknown 29 24 17 22 Total 189 177 156 188 1 Provisional 2 Interim data. Data for 1997 is still being collated and therefore the figures will change Source: Public Health Laboratory Service