The burden of disease due to corona was therefore slightly higher last year than in 2020. For that year, RIVM came to 207,000 missed healthy years.
Infectious diseases suppressed
Due to all 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 epidemic last winter, but it only started late, when the 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 years in good health, the researchers estimated.
An infectious disease that continued to spread, despite all hygiene measures, is scabies. The researchers are in the dark about the cause of this increase. They emphasize that combating scabies must mainly be done through a “group-oriented approach”. “General practitioners or dermatologists often focus on the treatment of individual patients, but given the national increase, this approach appears to be insufficiently effective because too little attention is paid to the treatment of contacts,” according to the RIVM. Information is also important, especially for young people who have many different contacts. (AP)