Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the spread of the Zika virus to the UK following travel to South America for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jane Ellison

The risk to the United Kingdom population posed by Zika virus – and of the mosquito species which transmit the virus establishing itself in the UK – remains extremely low.

The Government is ensuring the UK and those travelling to countries with active Zika transmission by mosquitoes are protected. Up-to-date travel advice is in place, and clinical advice is available to UK medical professionals. Public Health England has been working with Royal Colleges to provide guidance to healthcare professionals on managing symptomatic patients (including pregnant women) returning from areas with active transmission of Zika. This has been cascaded by appropriate Royal Colleges. Furthermore, NHS Blood and Transplant will defer donors returning from areas with active Zika transmission from donating for 28 days.

On 13 May 2016 the Department of Health, along with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, convened an Olympic and Paralympic health advisory group. The group brought together academic experts and cross-government representatives to support the British Olympic Association (BOA) and British Paralympic Association (BPA) in updating their guidance to athletes and staff travelling to Brazil for the Olympics and to ensure consistency with that provided to the travelling public. Zika virus was a key topic for discussion along with other potential health risks. The BOA and BPA are updating their guidance in light of discussions at the meeting and with further input from the academics and clinicians present. The Foreign Office will link this to their wider consular campaign ‘Stay ahead of the Games’.