Pneumococcal Disease (Hansard, 11 December 2003)

§ Dr. Tonge
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to put the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on the routine childhood immunisation schedule. [143017]

§ Miss Melanie Johnson
The Government are very careful when considering introducing a new vaccine into the childhood immunisation schedule. We have to be sure that the vaccine is safe, and effective in preventing disease. It is also important to know how many doses that children need to be protected and at what age the doses should be given. We also need to be confident that introducing a new vaccine into the childhood immunisation schedule doses not interfere with the protection given by the other vaccines in the programme. We have to be sure that any new health intervention is cost-effective.
The independent expert advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is currently examining the evidence of the potential benefits of introducing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to the infant immunisation schedule. What is clear is that there are many uncertainties in the evidence, in particular in measuring the burden of pneumococcal disease, and in the amount of disease that is expected to be prevented by a vaccine in both the short and longer term, because it protects against only seven of the numerous strains of pneumococcus.
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Research is being undertaken to try to answer the questions, and the JCVI is assessing the evidence as it develops.

§ Dr. Tonge
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of(a) the number of children affected by pneumococcal disease in the last year for which figures are available and (b) the severity of the disease and its complications in each case. [143018]

§ Miss Melanie Johnson
The nature of pneumococcal disease makes it difficult to measure with accuracy the burden of that disease. Notifications are for pneumococcal meningitis only and these are shown in the table for 2002.
Information on individual cases is not available centrally.

Number of notified cases of pneumococal meningitis in children for 2002

Age Number of cases

0 years 49

1–4 years 29

5–9 years 6

10–14 years 3

15–24 years 8

Number of notified cases of pneumococal meningitis in children for 2002
Age	Number of cases
0 years	49
1–4 years	29
5–9 years	6
10–14 years	3
15–24 years	8