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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the incidence of (a) ME, (b) MS and (c) HIV/AIDS, and what was the level of public expenditure, in each of the past five years in respect of each category. [116254] Ms Stuart: Information on the incidence and level of public expenditure on Chronic Fatigue syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is not available in the format requested. A number of definitions, disease descriptions or diagnostic criteria have been proposed to describe CFS/ME. However, there is no general agreement as to which should be used. This makes the results from studies on the prevalence of CFS/ME difficult to interpret and there is no agreement on the incidence of the illness. Services for people with CFS/ME are funded from baseline expenditure. The Department is currently supporting a number of projects at a total cost of £221,000 on CFS/ME research. In addition, we have also awarded the ME Association a total of £30,000 for 1998-99 and 1999-2000 and the Association of Youth with ME a total of £6,200 in 1998-99 under the Section 64 scheme of grants. Information on the incidence and level of public expenditure on Multiple Sclerosis is not available in the format requested. MS is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system. It is estimated to affect between 80-90,000 people in the UK. However, the incidence (new diagnoses each year) is not known. Services for people with MS are funded from baseline expenditure. The Medical Research Council supported about a dozen projects on multiple sclerosis and associated demyelinating diseases in 1998-99 representing a spend of approximately £640,000 in that year. The Department funds research to support policy and the delivery of effective practice in the National Health Service. The Department is currently spending approximately £150,000 per year on projects related to MS. In addition, we have awarded the MS Society £15,000 per year from 1997-98 until 1999-2000 under the Section 64 scheme of grants, for their emerging therapies project. The table reports new diagnoses of HIV and AIDS for England in each of the last five years. As people with HIV infection may not have symptoms for some time, new diagnoses are dependent on people coming forward for testing; however, the data on new diagnoses based on clinical reports of AIDS cases are a reasonable measure of AIDS incidence. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year of diagnosis New diagnoses of HIV infection New diagnoses of AIDS 1995 2,412 1,587 1996 2,438 1,298 1997 2,441 960 1998 2,557 677 1999 2,289 460 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: 1. Data reported by end 1999. 2. Numbers, particularly for the more recent years, will rise as further reports are received. Funding for HIV/AIDS £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Health Local Voluntary Public education Research Total authorities authorities organisations 1995-96 244.7 13.4 1.54 8.0 20.6 288.2 1996-97 237.7 13.7 1.63 5.2 19.5 277.7 1997-98 251.9 13.7 1.52 5.2 15.4 287.7 1998-99 281.4 13.7 1.58 4.8 16.2 317.6 1999-2000 286.4 15.0 1.60 4.5 16.0 323.5 Total 1,302.1 69.5 7.87 27.7 87.7 1,494.7 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

347 c346-8W;347 c346-7W; 116254

Session

1999-00

Subjects

ME/CFS Diseases Expenditure HIV/AIDS NHS Multiple sclerosis

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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