Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the increased risks to maternal and infant health caused by COVID-19 (1) in the UK, and (2) around the globe.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service is making arrangements to ensure the care, support and safety of women through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period to mitigate increased pressures on healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a clinical guide for the temporary reorganisation of intrapartum maternity care to ensure the safety of mothers, babies and staff. To reduce the risk of infection, there are now restrictions on visitors in most hospitals and maternity units. Further, the Department is funding several studies researching the impact of COVID-19 on maternity and neonatal care to ensure rapid learning.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) security, and (2) privacy, provisions are being used to protect the data of the users of the NHSX COVID-19 contact tracing application; and what steps they have taken to ensure that the information gathered by that application is what is required by (a) epidemiologists, and (b) public health officials.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have worked rigorously to make the app as privacy-conscious as possible, only collecting the data necessary to fulfil its epidemiological purpose and save lives. Security and privacy have been prioritised at all stages of the app’s development and we have drawn on expertise from across Government and industry to review our app’s designs.
Any user data collected centrally by the National Health Service will be held to the highest security standards. In addition to the continual monitoring, review and oversight undertaken by the NHS, we have consulted with the National Cyber Security Centre to review and supplement our processes. The app has been designed to calculate a user’s risk of infection using a heuristic model developed in collaboration with expert epidemiologists from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute. We have published an explanation of how the risk scoring algorithm works on the online only FAQ page of the NHS COVID-19 website. NHS doctors and scientists will continuously update the risk scoring algorithm to make it as accurate as possible.
The data collected supports the wider public health approach of manual contact tracing and testing. Anyone who has symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19, whether or not they are an app user, will be able to report those symptoms and get a test to find out if they have the virus.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to provide for the prescription of bio-identical hormone replacement therapy as part of NHS treatment.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
There are no current plans to make bio-identical hormone replacement therapy routinely available on National Health Service prescription. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the Agency responsible for the regulation of medicines used in the United Kingdom. There is a clear regime in place, administered by the MHRA, to enable medicines to be developed, authorised (licensed) and made available to patients in the UK. It is important that authorised medicines meet rigorous standards so that doctors and patients are sure of their quality, efficacy and safety.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many babies have been born in England with neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, in the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
Public Health England contributes to the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT), which reports on congenital anomaly statistics by country.
The numbers of babies born with neural tube defects from 2012 to 2016 are displayed in the attached table, due to the size of the data. Data for 2017 and 2018 are not currently available. Validated data for 2017 will be available from April 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what dates the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention met in the last five years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Meetings of the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention held over the last five years are shown in the following table.
Year | Date | Type of meeting |
2013 | 30 January 2013 | Full Committee Meeting |
15 May 2013 | Country Recommendations Meeting | |
8 November 2013 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting (Methodology) | |
11 December 2013 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting | |
2014 | 4 March 2014 | Treatment Guidelines Meeting |
2 June 2014 | Country Recommendations Meeting | |
2015 | 12 January 2015 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting |
5 March 2015 | Treatment Guidelines Meeting | |
24 June 2015 | Full Committee Meeting | |
24 November 2015 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting | |
2016 | 7 June 2016 | Country Recommendations Meeting |
16 September 2016 | Country Recommendations Working Group | |
22 November 2016 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting | |
2017 | 10 August 2017 | Country Recommendations Meeting |
14 September 2017 | Personal protection issues Meeting | |
2018 | 2 February 2018 | Prevention Guidelines Meeting |
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the report in the Sunday Times on 14 January that the Ministry of Defence had stated that respected health bodies continued to recommend Lariam "as a safe and effective form of malaria prevention", which bodies provide such a recommendation.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Mefloquine is effective in the prevention and treatment of malaria and is licensed for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which regulates medication in the United Kingdom. As with all medicines, the MHRA keeps the safety of mefloquine under continual review.
Bodies such as the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention, the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to include mefloquine as an option for malaria chemoprophylaxis.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research has been, or is being, conducted into whether there is a causal link between the use of growth-promoting oestrogens in poultry production and declining levels of male fertility in humans.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department has not funded, and is not currently funding research on this specific topic.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the decision taken by the United States Special Forces to ban the use of Lariam (mefloquine) for malaria prophylaxis.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Lariam (mefloquine), is an extremely effective antimalarial and is one of a number of antimalarials for travellers currently recommended by the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP), an expert advisory committee of Public Health England (PHE) established in 1998 to formulate evidence-based guidelines on malaria prevention in the United Kingdom.
The use of mefloquine, for travellers, including military personnel, to high risk areas should be based on an individual risk assessment that takes into consideration the destination of travel, planned activities while travelling and the individual’s current health and medical history.
The ACMP regularly reviews data on safety and efficacy of all antimalarials. Whenever new evidence about antimalarials appears the ACMP considers this as part of its continuous process of developing advice.
The ACMP will be meeting in summer 2015 to finalise the 2015 revision of the ACMP guidelines. This meeting will review current evidence on the use of mefloquine, including data provided by Roche, and recommendations made by other countries including the United States with regard to the use of mefloquine for malaria prevention.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the warning issued by Roche, the manufacturer of Lariam (mefloquine), in October 2013 that the drug "may induce potentially serious neuropsychiatric disorders".
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Lariam (mefloquine), is an extremely effective antimalarial and is one of a number of antimalarials for travellers currently recommended by the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP), an expert advisory committee of Public Health England (PHE) established in 1998 to formulate evidence-based guidelines on malaria prevention in the United Kingdom.
The use of mefloquine, for travellers, including military personnel, to high risk areas should be based on an individual risk assessment that takes into consideration the destination of travel, planned activities while travelling and the individual’s current health and medical history.
The ACMP regularly reviews data on safety and efficacy of all antimalarials. Whenever new evidence about antimalarials appears the ACMP considers this as part of its continuous process of developing advice.
The ACMP will be meeting in summer 2015 to finalise the 2015 revision of the ACMP guidelines. This meeting will review current evidence on the use of mefloquine, including data provided by Roche, and recommendations made by other countries including the United States with regard to the use of mefloquine for malaria prevention.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they have received from Public Health England on Lariam (mefloquine), in particular in relation to members of the armed forces serving in Afghanistan.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Lariam (mefloquine), is an extremely effective antimalarial and is one of a number of antimalarials for travellers currently recommended by the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP), an expert advisory committee of Public Health England (PHE) established in 1998 to formulate evidence-based guidelines on malaria prevention in the United Kingdom.
The use of mefloquine, for travellers, including military personnel, to high risk areas should be based on an individual risk assessment that takes into consideration the destination of travel, planned activities while travelling and the individual’s current health and medical history.
The ACMP regularly reviews data on safety and efficacy of all antimalarials. Whenever new evidence about antimalarials appears the ACMP considers this as part of its continuous process of developing advice.
The ACMP will be meeting in summer 2015 to finalise the 2015 revision of the ACMP guidelines. This meeting will review current evidence on the use of mefloquine, including data provided by Roche, and recommendations made by other countries including the United States with regard to the use of mefloquine for malaria prevention.