Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department made of trends in the instances of scarlet fever in the UK.

Public Health England recently undertook a comprehensive assessment of longitudinal trends in scarlet fever in England and Wales in light of the elevation in scarlet fever disease incidence, noted from 2014 onwards. This identified that the population rate in 2016 (33 cases per 100,000 population) was the highest seen since 1967. The study also identified a rise in hospitalisations during this period of elevated incidence, although the majority were discharged the same day. Weekly notifications during the 2017 seasonal peak of activity showed a slight drop compared to the previous year.

The assessment is available to view here:

www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(17)30693-X/fulltext?elsca1=tlpr