The disease burden due to corona was therefore slightly higher last year than in 2020. For that year, RIVM reached 207,000 healthy years lost.
Suppressed infectious diseases
Due to all the corona measures, various other infectious diseases have probably been suppressed. Influenza, for example, is not in the top three in terms of disease burden. There was a modest flu outbreak last winter, but it only started late, when far-reaching measures had already been released. Second in terms of disease burden is legionella, with 6,300 years of healthy life lost. Severe pneumococcal disease took 6,200 healthy years, researchers estimate.
One infectious disease that has continued to spread, despite all hygiene measures, is scabies. Researchers are unaware of the cause of this increase. They stress that fighting scabies must primarily be done through a “group-oriented approach.” “General practitioners or dermatologists often focus on treating individual patients, but given the national increase, this approach appears to be insufficiently effective because too little attention is paid to treating contacts,” according to the RIVM. Information is also important, especially for young people who have many different contacts. (AP)
