Oral Answers to Questions

Tania Mathias Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Local authorities have a fund and can exercise discretion. There will be some variation across the country, and steps have been taken to ensure that particularly vulnerable people are not affected in the way that the hon. Gentleman suggests.

[Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)]

Q10. The lack of large-scale vaccine manufacturing has been described as a national security issue for our country, and it will take many years to build that up. Will the Prime Minister look into what more the Government can do to address this highly critical health and defence concern?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the issue in that context. The Government take it very seriously. The ability to ensure that we can readily scale up vaccine production in the event of a pandemic is, as she says, vital to our national security. As I am sure she will understand, the precise details are necessarily confidential, but I can assure her that we have provisions in place to ensure that urgently needed vaccines are available in the UK at short notice, including in the event of a pandemic. As an added contingency, we are funding a £10 million competition to establish a world-leading centre for vaccine manufacturing. However, that is only part of the picture, because we are in a strong position: we have one of the most comprehensive and successful vaccination programmes in the world, backed up by £300 million in this year alone.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tania Mathias Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Yes, I hosted a delegation of Members from across the House who brought this excellent organisation to my attention recently, and my officials are conducting due diligence.

[Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)]

T2. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[Justine Greening]

Alongside visiting refugee camps in Kenya, at the end of May I headed the UK delegation at the world humanitarian summit where we helped to secure widespread agreement on the need to reform the humanitarian system. I committed £30 million of support to a new joint fund for education in emergencies to help to make sure that no child misses out on an education. Our commitment to international development is, and will continue to be, firmly in our national interest as well as the right thing to do.

[Dr Mathias]

I note we have UK advisers in the refugee camps in Europe. I hope they will remain. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that the best people do this essential work? Will the Secretary of State look into a Teach First-style scheme so that we get the best graduates?

[Justine Greening]

Britain is working with Greece, Turkey and others in Europe. The first UK team has arrived in Greece, and it includes experts in supporting vulnerable groups, such as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and those trained to tackle people trafficking. My hon. Friend raises an interesting point, and I will certainly take it up with my colleagues at the Home Office and the Department for Education.

Zika Virus

Tania Mathias Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hurd]

I note the hon. Gentleman’s constituency interest. He is entirely right that community-level support is fundamental to the strengthening of health systems, which he and I have debated in the past, and to DFID’s development work. The response of Brazil—a country I know relatively well, having lived there for five years—has been impressive. It appears to be well supported, not least by the Americans, and we have made it clear to it that we are here to help on the ground. DFID does not have a footprint in Brazil, but we are greatly concerned about the risk of this disease spreading to countries where we, on behalf of the UK taxpayer, have a big exposure. Our primary concern is assisting those countries to alert their health systems, which we actively support, and to anticipate, manage and mitigate future risk.

[Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)]

In the light of the Ebola crisis, how are the Government scrutinising and supporting the WHO leadership, which was severely criticised during that crisis, while the UK response was greatly praised?

[Mr Hurd]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. Concerns were expressed on the Floor of the House about the capacity of the WHO and the pace of its response to the Ebola situation. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has made it clear that the UK, as the second-largest donor, is far from complacent about the need for reform, including monitoring reform. The chief scientific adviser and colleagues at the Department of Health are working together closely to ensure that the WHO is up to the mark, and colleagues will note that the latter has moved more quickly this time. We are in regular dialogue with it to ensure that its systems are as agile and responsive as they can be.

Tropical Diseases

Tania Mathias Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[David Mackintosh (Northampton South) (Con)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) for arranging for the debate and I support his view that this is a critical time for tackling tropical diseases. I will talk specifically about leprosy, which, along with the other neglected tropical diseases that we have heard about, is preventable and treatable, although it needs to be caught early to avoid complications, side effects or disfigurement.

Last month I visited Bangladesh and met with workers from the Leprosy Mission and people suffering from the disease. We visited Vasantek, on the outskirts of Dhaka, where I met Soloma Akter, a 58-year-old widow who used to live in Boroalgapa village with her son Azizul Haque, who is a rickshaw puller, and his family. Soloma had dismissed the patch on her left arm as “nothing” when it first appeared. When she developed an ulcer on her right foot, her son took her to the hospital, but the doctors failed to diagnose leprosy. She subsequently lost three toes. A few months before my visit, staff from the Dhaka Leprosy Control Project saw her begging on the street. They recognised her symptoms and brought her to the Vasantek clinic, where she is now receiving treatment. Earlier diagnosis and medical treatment would have helped Soloma to keep her toes. There are many more stories like hers.

I also visited a self-help group in the nearby Bashantek slums, where most people who received early treatment and therefore escaped disability now look out for others with symptoms and bring them to the clinic for treatment. One man who had lost all his fingers and toes spoke passionately through the translator about how he now knew and recognised the signs and had spotted them in three other people, who had since been diagnosed and treated.

[Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)]

I have worked with leprosy in different countries and different continents. Does my hon. Friend agree that disability is 100% preventable and that the UK can lead by ensuring that Governments have proper data collection of every single disability case in leprosy?

[David Mackintosh]

I agree with my hon. Friend.

I have to confess that that was the first time that I had met people with leprosy, and I was not sure what to expect when I walked into the clinic. I saw people who had lost their toes, sitting with their feet in buckets to clean and hydrate their feet. I was nervous about how I would react, but I wanted to shake their hands to dispel the myth about catching leprosy by touch. But it was fine: my reaction was human, and we all saw how vulnerable these people were, but we also saw the best of humanity—the selflessness of the people caring for them, the local doctors and the people from the Leprosy Mission.

I am pleased that over the past 20 years more than 14 million leprosy patients have been cured throughout the world, and the prevalence rate of the disease has dropped by 90%. Almost all new leprosy cases are now reported from only 14 countries. In order to reach all patients, leprosy treatment, as with treatment of other neglected tropical diseases, needs to be fully integrated into general health services. Education and awareness must remain a priority. As I saw, when people know the signs and symptoms and see the effects, they become advocates for seeking help and themselves help to save many people from similar suffering.

We also need political commitment in countries with the problem, so that leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases remain a public health priority and so that we break down the age-old stigmas attached to these diseases.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Davies; I appreciate it. Contrary to some other people, I want to see 21st-century measures, with local medical teams and local Governments taking ownership.

The UK’s legacy is in data collection by the missionaries. In many of the countries in which I worked, that was not done adequately, and that is where the system will break down. Our greatest legacy is the rigour of data collection. I also commend the work of the late, great Colin McDougall, who was a titan in leprosy work. We owe him so much.

[Geraint Davies (in the Chair)]

Mike Kane has indicated that he wants only five minutes, so if you want to speak for a couple of minutes, Dr Mathias, you may.

[Dr Mathias]

indicated dissent.

[Geraint Davies (in the Chair)]

In that case, I call Stuart Blair Donaldson.