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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Chris Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of (a) tuberculosis, (b) scurvy and (c) rickets were reported (i) nationally and (ii) in each region in each year region in each year since 1980. [8806] Mr. Horam: The numbers of notifications of tuberculosis to the Office for National Statistics for 1980 and provisional figures for 1995 are given in the table. Figures for the intervening years are given by standard region in table 5 of the annual publications "Series MB2 Communicable Disease Statistics", copies of which are available in the Library. Changes in the methods for recording numbers of notifications mean that total notification figures for 1980 and 1981 include cases of chemoprophylaxis but from 1982 totals excludes chemoprophylaxis are given. Cases of tuberculosis chemoprophylaxis are not cases of actual tuberculosis and most are therefore not notified. There was 458 cases of chemoprophylaxis in 1995. TB notifications _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Standard region 1980 (including chemoprophylaxis) Provisional figures for 1995 (excluding chemoprophylaxis) North 486 194 Yorkshire and Humberside 884 597 East Midlands 625 413 East Anglia 146 80 South East 3,767 2,656 South West 355 202 West Midlands 1,164 654 North West 1,325 630 Wales 390 180 England and Wales{1} 9,142 5,606 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Excluding Port Health Authorities. Data are not collected centrally on scurvy or rickets. National diet and nutrition surveys since 1980 do not show any evidence of the vitamin C deficiency which causes scurvy in the general population. There are occasional reports of rickets in young children, caused by vitamin D deficiency from insufficient exposure to sunlight. The Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy has established an expert sub-group on the nutritional aspects of bone health which is considering this.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

8806; 287 c458-9W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Tuberculosis Malnutrition Deficiency diseases Notifiable diseases

Contains statistics

Yes