asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the total number of diagnosed cases of meningitis which have occurred in each of the last three years; and how many of this number were found in the eastern regional health authority area for each of these years.

[pursuant to her reply, 2 February 1987]: Figures are not available in the precise form requested, but the notifications of acute meningitis recevied were as follows:

	England and Wales	East Anglian RHA
1984	1,230	38
1985	11,531	161
1986	12,161	150
1 provisional figures.

The term acute meningitis includes meningococcal, pneumococcal, influenzal (haemophilus influenzae) and viral meningitis, as well as other specified and unspecified forms of the disease. The incidence of meningitis has changed quite sharply from year to year, both increases and decreases, in recent years, for no discernible reason.