Sexually Transmitted Infections

(asked on 19th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 3 May 2018 to Questions 139593 and 139592, for what reasons (a) neonatal herpes has not yet been considered for categorisation as a notifiable disease and (b) no information on the incidence of that disease is held centrally.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 25th June 2018

Type 1 and 2 of the herpes infection were considered for categorisation as a notifiable disease in 2010 when the Health Protection Regulations were undergoing development; expert opinion and consultation concluded that they should not be included. Further information is available at the following link:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Closedconsultations/DH_102134

Hospital Episode Statistics do collect diagnoses of herpes; however, it is not possible to identify neonates. This is because identifiers including date of birth are stripped from records submitted with sensitive codes such as sexually transmitted diseases.

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