§ Mr. Ian StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the second stage of the meningitis C vaccination programme for one to five-year-olds will commence. [105892]
328WHospital Episode Statistics (HES). This data includes admissions to hospital with pseudomonas but not those cases contracted within hospitals.
Pseudomonas do not have a distinct code within the International Classification of Diseases used for encoding death registration data at the Office for National Statistics. There are therefore no centrally-held statistics on deaths from this cause.
All NHS trusts should have an infection control team which has primary responsibility for, and reports to the chief executive on, all aspects of surveillance, prevention and control of infection, including pseudomonas. A range of initiatives are underway to strengthen hospital infection control arrangements, including issue of comprehensive new standards to the NHS on 22 November 1999 as part of the National Controls Assurance launch. Acute NHS trusts must assess themselves against these standards by March 2000. Compliance will be monitored by the Commission for Health Improvement and the Audit Commission.
§ Yvette CooperRoll-out of the meningococcal Group immunisation programme is dependent on satisfactory vaccine supply. Those children at highest risk of meningococcal disease are being offered immunisation first. The "catch-up" programme to immunise all children under the age of two years began this month and is planned to be completed by the end of March. 329W Immunisation of other children under five years will commence as quickly as vaccine supplies become available. Parents will be told when their children are to be called for immunisation. All children and young people under 18 should have been offered vaccine by the end of 2000.