Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the risk of the Zika virus spreading to the UK.

Jane Ellison

The risk of Zika virus to the United Kingdom population remains very low and has been regularly assessed and reviewed since the first reports of cases of Zika infection from Brazil in May 2015. A pre-Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has met to review the Zika outbreak in the Americas, the link with microcephaly and other disorders, and the risk to the UK. In addition, a qualitative assessment of the risk that Zika virus presents to the UK population was undertaken by the UK Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group, and this was published on the gov.uk website in February 2016, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hairs-risk-assessment-zika-virus

All evidence is kept under constant review.

“