Written question asked by Sandra Gidley (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 16 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 18 July 2007. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Monday, 23 July 2007 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Hepatitis

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of (a) hepatitis A, (b) typhoid and (c) hepatitis B were diagnosed in each month since January 2001.

Answer

The latest available information, which is by quarter and calendar year, is shown in the tables.

Laboratory reports of hepatitis A infection in England and Wales, 2001-05
	Quarter	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
January-March	1	239	260	303	224	129
April-June	2	195	335	247	137	123
July-September	3	186	365	260	142	135
October-December	4	176	397	218	168	73
Total		796	1,357	1,028	671	460

Laboratory reports of acute hepatitis B infection in England and Wales, 2001-03¹
	Quarter	2001	2002	2003
January-March	1	160	204	219
April-June	2	140	240	193
July-September	3	159	221	178
October-December	4	142	257	162
Total		601	922	752
¹ In England and Wales acute hepatitis B cases are reported to the Health Protection Agency. In 2004, there was a substantial deterioration in the quality of acute hepatitis B reporting and since 2004 data have not been available. The Health Protection Agency is working to improve the quality of information on acute hepatitis B reporting and provisional data should be available from the start of 2007 later this year.

Laboratory reports of Salmonella typhi (causative agent of typhoid) in England and Wales, 2001-06
	Quarter	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
January-March	1	36	27	42	41	42	61
April-June	2	42	43	77	57	65	55
July-September	3	59	42	49	56	52	83
October-December	4	43	34	35	53	73	49
Total		180	146	203	207	232	248
Source:
Health Protection Agency (HPA)

Secondary information