1: A single condom filled with a harmless purple powder, but thrown with a “deadly accuracy” at the Prime Minister’s back, was enough to instigate an urgent review of Commons security only days after  the installation of a controversial new screen to protect MPs from possible terrorist attack.

6 years: The length of the sentence given to 20-year-old shop assistant Craig Harman of Frimley,  Surrey, who was jailed for at the Old Bailey on April 19 for the man-slaughter of lorry driver Michael  Little, killed in March last year when a brick crashed through the windscreen of his vehicle on the M3 in  Camberley, Surrey. It was the first time a successful prosecution had been brought in England after a  killer was traced through a relative’s DNA profile.

16: The number of deaths from malaria in the UK in 2003 – an increase from nine in 2002. Experts blame the rise on the popularity of cheap foreign travel combined with a failure among travellers to seek medical advice on the potential health risks of more exotic holiday locations.

21 years: The age of the oldest frozen sperm used in a successful IVF treatment. The father, Trevor  White, had chosen to freeze his sperm at 17 after being warned that the treatment for his testicular  cancer could leave him sterile. His wife Joan conceived and later gave birth to a baby boy, Dan, after four cycles of IVF treatment.

47.6 %: The percentage of hospital doctor’s ties found to be harbouring with potentially hazardous bacteria, according to research undertaken by New York Hospital Queens.

3,800: The number of people estimated to be potential “carriers” of the vCJD virus in the UK following a study of 12,674 appendix and tonsil samples by Plymouth’s Derri-ford hospital and the CJD surveillance unit. Three samples showed signs of the disease.

£0.5 billion: The amount of money the NHS has saved since 1998 after a crackdown on fraud. The fiddling of staff payment forms for work not undertaken and prescription fraud – by both pharmacists and patients – were amongst the some of the con tricks targeted by the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service. The sum is estimated to be enough to pay for 60,000 kidney transplants or 100,000 hip replacements.