asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the alarming incidence of brucellosis infection in humans; and the measures, if any, that are being adopted to prevent it.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Brucellosis in Humans.
10.
Brucellosis is a notifiable disease for the purpose of the Infectious Diseases Regulations, 1948. The number of cases notified for 1972 and 1973 were 86 and 124 respectively. This year during the first four months, 34 cases were notified as compared with 33 for the same period in 1973. It is generally accepted that the disease is more prevalent in humans than these figures indicate; it is a difficult disease to diagnose and cases may not come to notice.
Brucellosis is transmitted to man mainly by contact with infected animals or by consumption of their milk raw; the disease is not transmitted from person to person. Pasteurisation of milk for human consumption is an effective preventative and pasteurisation is a standard recommendation of my Department. Other Government Departments and health institutions have been informed accordingly. The prospect of an ultimate solution to human brucellosis is of course linked with the success of the Bovine Brucellosis Eradication Scheme and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries which operate the scheme recently informed my Department that good progress has been and is being made in the eradication of the disease in various counties and that the objective is that the entire country will be under brucellosis eradication by 1977-78.
The Parliamentary Secretary will agree with me, I am sure, that the incidence of human brucellosis has been increasing and that the awareness of the public of this very serious menace is not as high as it should be. I would ask the Minister for Health to take cognisance of this fact and to institute more rigorous methods, especially in the matter of the pasteurisation of milk supplied for human consumption. I would ask him to introduce better and stronger measures for the prevention of the transmission of brucellosis to humans.
I agree with the Deputy that it is a serious problem. I can assure him and the House that the Chief Medical Officer of Health is in constant communication with the medical officers of health throughout the entire country. We hope that this notifiable disease will be given more prominence and that more will be done to eradicate it.
Would the Minister for Health confer with his colleague the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries in order to ensure that there is no illegal traffic of brucellosis reactor cattle from the clearance areas?
That is a separate matter. The question deals with brucellosis in humans.
About three months ago I asked the Minister if he would co-operate with the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries and if he would ask the Minister for Finance to try to make money available for a further investigation into the whole situation of infection of humans by brucellosis.
In reply to a previous question I promised the Deputy that I would get in touch with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. That has been done, as I indicated in reply to Deputy Gibbons just now. Every effort is being made to find a solution to this problem.