asked the Minister for Health the number of children either admitted to hospital suffering from whooping cough and/or recorded as suffering from whooping cough in each of the last five years; the number vaccinated against whooping cough in each of the last ten years; whether all the children who should be vaccinated are being vaccinated; and if he will clarify the position.

I propose to circulate the information requested in tabular form.

I do not have precise figures relating to the number of children who were admitted to hospital suffering from whooping cough. The figures in table 2 relate to children suffering from the disease and admitted to fever hospitals.

As indicated in table 3, not all children who should be vaccinated are receiving whooping cough vaccination, but the indications are that the uptake of the vaccination is increasing.

My Department have recently issued revised guidelines to health boards which are designed to achieve and maintain high levels of vaccination and immunisation. The Health Education Bureau will also be arranging public education programmes.

Following are the tables:

Table 1

Number of cases of whooping cough notified to the Department of Health, 1978-1982.

Table 2

Number of cases of whooping cough admitted to *hospital during the period 1978-1982.

*Fever Hospitals only.

Table 3

Number of persons vaccinated against whooping cough, 1973-1982

1 % of births in previous year.

2 Final figures not yet available.