Schools: Infectious Diseases

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many identifiable outbreaks of infection were reported by schools in each of the last five years for which figures are available; what the infection was in each case; and if he will make a statement. (183175)

The Department does not collect the information requested.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) receives reports of outbreaks of illness in school from the Medical Officers of Schools Association (MOSA). This voluntary reporting scheme covers selected boarding schools only and it provides data on trends rather than estimates of national totals. Data for 2001 to 2006 are provided in Table 1.

Since 2004 the HPA has also been operating a national voluntary scheme for schools to report outbreaks and incidents: the National Incident Database. Data for outbreaks and their causes in 2006, the first year for which reliable figures are available, are in Table 2.

The HPA introduced the national Incident Reporting Information System (IRIS) to replace the National Incident Database with effect from 1 January 2007. 272 outbreaks were reported to IRIS in 2007. A detailed analysis has not yet been carried out.

*Table 1: MOSA school outbreaks reported to the Centre for Infections through the weekly illness surveillance scheme: 2000 to 2006*
	Type
	Gastro	Other	Respiratory	Total
2000	6	1	17	24
2001	16	9	43	68
2002	21	3	24	48
2003	21	1	48	70
2004	15	2	18	35
2005	7	1	22	30
2006	7	0	19	26
Total	93	17	191	301
Notes: 1. Gastro: Gastrointestinal disease. Other: infectious mononucleosis, measles, rubella, chicken pox, herpes zoster, mumps, meningitis, hepatitis. Respiratory: upper respiratory tract infection, chest infection, influenza and flu-like illness. 2. There are approx 40 schools in the surveillance scheme.

*Table 2: Outbreaks of infectious diseases in schools reported to HPA (National Incident Database): 2006*
Illness	Number of outbreaks
Gastrointestinal	155
Diarrhoea and/or vomiting (cause not specified)	113
Escherichia coli O157	1
Norovirus	38
Salmonella	3
Mumps	4

Respiratory	81
Acute respiratory illness	1
Influenza and influenza-like illness	54
Pneumococcal disease	1
Scarlet fever	3
Streptococcus	1
Tuberculosis	1
Viral respiratory illness	20

Respiratory + Gastrointestinal	16
Influenza and norovirus	12
Influenza-like illness and diarrhoea and/or vomiting	4

Measles, mumps rubella	7
Measles	3
Mumps	4

Skin	6
Impetigo	1
Ringworm	2
Scabies	2
Trycophyton tonsurans	1

Other	8
Chickenpox	2
Conjunctivitis	3
Parvovirus (aka fifth disease, slapped cheek)	3

Not known/not stated
Biological outbreaks, cause not stated	10
Total	283

Volume 471: debated on Monday 4 February 2008