Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of hospitalisations which were attributed to household mould inhalation in each of the last three years.

This information is not held in the format requested.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) does not hold data on hospitalisations following household mould exposures or inhalations as they are difficult to define or prove causality. Most reasons for healthcare presentation from household mould exposures would be exacerbation of pre-existing asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis and/or rhinitis. Invasive disease following such exposures is likely to be very rare in non-immunocompromised individuals and would follow overwhelming exposure.

UKHSA currently routinely reports invasive fungal disease from bloodstream infections in our annual English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) report which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report

In addition, UKHSA has recently published data on invasive fungal disease associated with COVID-19 in peer-reviewed literature, available at the following links:

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JCM.02136-20

https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(21)00665-4/fulltext