Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to assess the impact of new immunisation programmes for infant respiratory syncytial virus on (1) hospitalisations, and (2) health inequality.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) monitors national immunisation programmes in England. The UKHSA’s Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Watch surveillance system collects weekly information on admissions to hospital with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), to monitor admission rates in each RSV season. If a programme is introduced, monitoring of its effectiveness would include thorough analysis of immunisation records, both infant or maternal, and laboratory results for patients needing healthcare for RSV-like illness. The UKHSA can also monitor RSV admissions by deprivation and ethnicity, using routine National Health Service records, when these become available following the RSV season. The UKHSA will also monitor inequalities in uptake of the RSV immunisation programmes, through its routine uptake data collections.
Jun. 11 2024
Source Page: Surveillance of influenza and other seasonal respiratory viruses in the UK, winter 2023 to 2024Found: Surveillance of influenza and other seasonal respiratory viruses in the UK, winter 2023 to 2024
Asked by: Wells, Annie (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Glasgow)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how the 12 commitments in the Respiratory Care Action Plan have been prioritised, and which commitments have been achieved.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
Since the publication of Respiratory Care Action Plan (RCAP) for Scotland, we have established the Scottish Respiratory Advisory Committee (SRAC) to oversee its implementation. The key priorities identified were: increasing access to pulmonary rehabilitation; developing a respiratory core data set and developing best practice guidance for children living with asthma and transitioning to adult services.
Sub-groups were established to take this work forward. The Transitions sub-group have produced their recommendations for best practice, and these have been shared with key stakeholders in order to improve consistency across the country.
We are working closely with Public Health Scotland and are currently in the early stages of developing a national respiratory audit, which will help to better identify areas of improvement and track progress across Scotland.
In September 2023, the British Thoracic Society published their refreshed pulmonary rehab guidelines, we are considering how best we can support its implementation across Scotland. We are also working closely with the Scottish Pulmonary Rehab Advisory Group (SPRAG) and the Respiratory Specialty Delivery Group within the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) in order to determine how we can best support improvements in pulmonary rehab services across Scotland.
The Centre for Sustainable Delivery are also developing national pathways for respiratory conditions including severe asthma; COPD and sleep apnoea. This work aligns closely with the RCAP and we will continue to ensure that close links continue.
Feb. 28 2024
Source Page: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV): testingFound: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV): testing
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2023 to Question 1672 on Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Vaccination, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's statement of 1 September 2023 on a respiratory syncytial virus immunisation programme for infants and older adults.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Officials across the Department, the UK Health Security Agency, and NHS England are continuing to develop options and plans based on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice, regarding expanded respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) immunisation programmes to protect infants and older adults.
This is taking into account clinical and operational factors, such as timing and coordination with other national immunisation programmes. As part of this work, the Government is engaging the market on its requirements for products that would enable RSV programmes to be implemented. A final decision on these programmes will be taken following the outcome of this process.
Asked by: Lennon, Monica (Scottish Labour - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what specific measures are being taken to address any high levels of pneumonia (mycoplasma pneumoniae) infections recorded in recent Public Health Scotland data.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
Since November 2021, sentinel surveillance data have been available for mycoplasma pneumoniae in Scotland through the CARI sentinel surveillance programme. In this programme, sentinel GP practices across Scotland recruit and swab patients with symptoms of acute respiratory infection. These samples are all tested for ten respiratory pathogens, including mycoplasma pneumoniae. Enhanced surveillance data, primarily relating to symptoms, are collected by an online questionnaire from patients tested in the programme. Analyses from these data suggest that most infections display as a mild respiratory illness. To date, there have been no deaths in 1280 CARI patients positive for mycoplasma pneumoniae (up to week 7) within 28 days of their test. With the information from CARI, GP providers have been advised that they should consider mycoplasma pneumoniae as part of the differential diagnosis for community-acquired pneumonia cases.
PHS separately analyses data on all microbiology laboratory specimen results across Scotland to identify positive mycoplasma pneumoniae test in hospitals or care homes, or as requested in the community (by GPs). These data are reviewed by PHS and NHS Health Boards to identify any clusters or trends resulting in severe disease that warrant further intervention. To date, no unusual outbreaks or evidence of increased severity of disease has been noted and public health guidance on management of cases/clinical treatment remains unchanged.
Mar. 21 2024
Source Page: GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance: weekly bulletins for 2024Found: ........................... ................................ .................... 20 About the UK Health
Mar. 21 2024
Source Page: GP out-of-hours syndromic surveillance: weekly bulletins for 2024Found: ........................... ................................ .................... 20 About the UK Health
May. 10 2024
Source Page: ACRE advice: application for a vaccine trial of genetically modified Respiratory Syncytial Virus (24/R56/01)Found: ACRE advice: application for a vaccine trial of genetically modified Respiratory Syncytial Virus (24/
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will (1) appoint a chair to lead the respiratory mission within the Life Sciences Vision, and (2) provide funding to enable the delivery of the respiratory mission as it has done in the case of the cancer, obesity and mental health missions.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has engaged with stakeholders to define and develop the scope of work to be undertaken under the Respiratory Mission, which aims to reduce the mortality and morbidity from respiratory disease in the UK and globally. At this point a chair of the Respiratory Mission has not been appointed.