2023-09-25 15:47:22
London. British doctors are sounding the alarm. Victorian-era diseases such as tuberculosis spread to many areas of Britain. The state health system has apparently not been able to put a stop to this so far.
General practitioners’ practices and clinics in the British National Health Service (NHS) report that more and more patients are coming to consultations with previously undetected tuberculosis. More than 2,400 new tuberculosis infections were reported nationwide in England in the first half of 2023, according to official statistics. This is a further increase of seven percent compared to the previous year, when the numbers were already relatively high.
According to the London Ministry of Health, the highest growth rates were reported in the southwest of England, where tuberculosis infections increased regionally by 62 percent compared to the previous year. In the northeast, the number of reported cases of the disease rose by 51 percent, and in the wealthy southeast of England by almost 15 percent.
Patients know little about Victorian-era illnesses
For comparison: According to information from the Robert Koch Institute on September 21st, 3,227 tuberculosis infections have been reported in Germany since the beginning of the year. In the same period last year there were 2,991 reports nationwide.
NHS GPs report that many patients know little about this and other diseases dating back to Queen Victoria’s time. The infection is often diagnosed by chance because the patient comes to the consultation because of other complaints. Socially disadvantaged families are significantly more likely to be affected by tuberculosis than wealthier families.
Other diseases from Victorian times are also making a comeback, according to doctors in Britain. This trend was accelerated by the corona pandemic, as many patients avoided clinics and overcrowded waiting rooms in primary doctor’s offices for fear of infection – and some still do so today. Whether scarlet fever or whooping cough – the number of reported cases has also increased there.
At the same time, state clinics and doctors’ practices have long been under pressure to treat more and more patients with fewer and fewer staff and resources. This inevitably encourages the spread of these diseases. (branch)
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