§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the arrangements for offering adults vaccination against whooping cough; how many adults have been vaccinated in each of the last five years; how many cases of whooping cough in adults have been reported in the last five years; and how many deaths have been recorded.[141845]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonPertussis disease (whooping cough) has been at the lowest levels ever observed in the past five years. Since the introduction of a pre-school booster dose in October 2001 pertussis levels have fallen further. We are continuing to monitor levels of pertussis to fully evaluate the impact of the booster dose. However, because pertussis has periodic cycles over several years, it may be several more years before the impact can be assessed accurately.
The need for a booster dose for young people and adults will be assessed when the evidence becomes available. There is therefore no information on the number of adults immunised with the pertussis vaccine at present as it is not recommended.
Information on notifications of pertussis disease are collected through the NOIDS system (Notification of Infectious Diseases). Information on deaths is collected by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Information on the number of notifications of pertussis in adults in 898W the last five years is shown in the table. There have been no deaths attributed to pertussis in adults in the last five years.
Number of notifications of pertussis in adults (England and Wales) in the last five years Age group 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 15 to 24 year old 24 23 20 21 20 25 to 44 year old 75 69 32 35 63 45 to 64 year old 21 14 19 18 28 65+ years 9 4 4 3 6 Source:
Health Protection Agency.