Máirín Quill
Ceist:58 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Health the number of confirmed cases of Down's Syndrome in this country on a county by county basis. [18375/95]
Written Answers. - Down's Syndrome Cases.
The information requested by the Deputy is not available. As part of the birth notification system, statistical information is collected on each birth and includes specification of congenital birth defects. This data cannot, however, be used to provide national incidence figures for birth defects since the information is recorded shortly after the birth and many congenital anomalies, including Down's Syndrome, may not be positively identified at that time.
Comprehensive information on the prevalence of Down's Syndrome during the past ten years is, however, available for the Eastern Health Board area through participation in a concerted action programme of the EU on the epidemiologic surveillance of congenital anomalies (EUROCAT). Approximately 20 regions throughout Europe are involved in this survey. For the Eastern Health Board, a number of sources of information are used to ensure that reporting is as complete as possible. These include the birth notification system, which is the principal source, as well as hospital discharge data, death certification, liaison with directors of community care and information from individual pathologists and paediatricians. The following table sets out EUROCAT data for the Eastern Health Board showing numbers of Down's Syndrome births and rates per 10,000 live and still births for each year from 1984 to 1993.
Eastern Health Board Down's Syndrome Births and Rate per 10,000 live and still births: 1984-1993
|
Down's Syndrome births |
Rate per 10,000 births |
|
|
1984 |
40 |
17.9 |
|
1985 |
52 |
23.5 |
|
1986 |
43 |
19.8 |
|
1987 |
35 |
16.9 |
|
1988 |
35 |
17.6 |
|
1989 |
29 |
15.3 |
|
1990 |
33 |
17.0 |
|
1991 |
33 |
16.7 |
|
1992 |
39 |
20.4 |
|
1993 |
42 |
22.8 |