Vol. 411 No. 6
13 Dr. O'Connell asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that figures in relation to certain notifiable diseases published by his Department were at variance with figures reported to his Department; and if he will give the reason for the discrepancy; and the measures he proposes to take to ensure the accuracy of the figures.
I am aware that concerns have been expressed that figures in relation to certain notifiable diseases published by my Department were at variance with figures reported to the Department.
This difficulty has arisen because there are two systems of reporting tuberculosis:
(i) My Department circulates to all directors of community care and the medical press a quarterly summary of the number of cases of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, which are notified by individual directors, to the Department on a weekly basis. An annual summary of these returns of infectious diseases is also compiled;
(ii) The second system of reporting is a separate annual system of notification of tuberculosis alone which has been in operation since the late 1940s when TB was a very serious public health problem in this country.
The difficulty which has arisen stems from the fact that some directors of community care have not been notifying tuberculosis in their weekly infectious disease returns.
In fact no case of tuberdulosis was notified for the Dublin area in the weekly returns for 1990 and this was reflected in the quarterly and annual summaries on infectious diseases. The figure of 157 cases of tuberculosis which has been referred to was in fact an annual return for 1989 and not 1990 and is the figure included in the separate annual report on tuberculosis. Annual figures for tuberculosis for 1990 are curently being compiled from the separate tuberculosis system.
