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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 12 May 1999

Vol. 504 No. 5

Written Answers. - Patient Statistics.

Dan Neville

Question:

133 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of patients suffering from Hirschsprungs and Down's syndrome in each health board area. [12387/99]

There are no national figures available on the number of people with Down's syndrome who also suffer from Hirschsprungs. I am advised however that people with Down's syndrome are no more likely to have Hirschsprungs than the general population.

Hirschsprungs is a congenital condition of the colon, the main effect of which is chronic constipation. There is no data available on the total number of people in the country suffering from Hirschsprungs, which is not a notifiable condition. However, the hospital in-patient inquiry statistics record the number of people who attended hospitals in 1997 as inpatients or day-cases because of Hirschsprungs. A breakdown of these figures by health board area is set out below.

Board area

Number of Cases

Eastern Health Board

15

Midlands Health Board

0

Mid-Western Health Board

2

North-Eastern Health Board

2

North-Western Health Board

5

South-Eastern Health Board

13

Southern Health Board

7

Western Health Board

5

Other

1

Total

50

In the Eastern Health Board area, data on the number of babies born annually in the region with congenital anomalies, including Down's syndrome and Hirschsprungs, are collected by the Dublin EUROCAT register, as part of a European-wide project. The register shows that 735 children were born with Down's syndrome in counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow in the period 1980-97, of whom 15 also had Hirschsprungs.
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