Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of meningitis in children there have been in each of the last five years.

Meningitis can be caused by a variety of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Public Health England (PHE) does not collect data on all causes but has data on laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease, which is a major cause of bacterial meningitis in England and Wales. This data does not distinguish between presentations of invasive meningococcal disease such as meningitis and septicaemia.

The following table shows the number of cases of confirmed invasive meningococcal disease (all capsular groups) in those of 0-19 years of age, in the last five years (2009-2013).

Confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease in England and Wales, PHE 2009-2013, 0-19 years of age:

*= provisional data