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Do people get sick less often in the Corona Pademie?
Many people are likely to contract a cold or gastrointestinal flu less often due to reduced contact.
This certainly does not apply to heart attacks, strokes or cancer.
In any case, these conditions must be treated - and quickly.
An evaluation of the billing data of the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkassen (AOK) now suggests that this is often neglected in the corona pandemic.
Many very sick people come to the hospital late.
Some serious illnesses go undetected due to a lack of preventive medical check-ups.
Apparently, one year after the outbreak of the corona pandemic, distrust in the German health system is still so high that many avoid going to the doctor.
The number of heart attack treatments during the second wave, between October and January, fell by 13 percent.
In spring, during the first wave, the decline was as much as 16 percent.
Doctors report that some affected patients did not come to the hospital until the heart was already permanently damaged.
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Others apparently stayed completely at home.
They probably only suffered a minor heart attack, but now they fear that they will develop permanent heart failure as a result of the lack of treatment.
"In view of the numbers, we can only renew the appeal to the population not to hesitate to dial the emergency number in the event of emergency symptoms, even under the conditions of the pandemic," warned Jürgen Klauber, Managing Director of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (Wido).
Chest pain, visual disturbances and paralysis are important warning signals for a heart attack or stroke.
Only serious emergencies end up in the hospital
Treatments for strokes also fell by eleven percent in the second wave.
In the spring it was minus twelve percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
This is not without consequences.
Already in the first wave of the pandemic, the health insurance company noted an increased mortality rate among stroke patients.
This could repeat itself now.
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Studies suggest that severe emergencies in particular end up in the hospital.
In the other cases, the patients' distrust in the health system and the fear of being infected with corona are apparently so high that some people try to avoid treatment despite clear complaints.
In the long term, high risks could arise from this development.
The warnings from health insurers and doctors have not helped so far.
The promise that the care of such emergencies was absolutely safe also apparently fizzled out.
But it's not just the patient's fears.
In fact, a lack of provision is also a decisive factor.
This is shown by the numbers on cancer treatments, which also fell significantly.
This is especially true for breast and colon cancer.
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In the first wave of pandemics, for example, there were ten to 17 percent fewer operations in which a breast or colon cancer ulcer was removed.
The reason for this was the lack of preventive medical check-ups.
The so-called mammography screening for the early detection of breast cancer was suspended during the first lockdown, at the same time ten percent fewer tumors were surgically removed.
The program was not interrupted during the second wave of pandemics, and at the same time the minus was significantly lower at five percent.
In the case of colorectal cancer operations, on the other hand, it was a hefty 20 percent in the fall.
Apparently there was also a significantly “reduced outpatient diagnosis” in the second wave of pandemics, according to Klauber.
To what extent patients with complaints hesitated to be examined or whether there were fewer examinations due to capacity reasons, the health insurance company could not answer due to a lack of data.
One thing is certain: the decline is noticeably high.
For some time, experts have feared that so-called triage could occur, in which Covid-19 sufferers are prioritized over other patients.
And in fact, the number of people who are treated in the intensive care unit and who have not contracted Covid-19 has recently decreased.
Intensive care units fill up with unvaccinated people
In addition, the AOK evaluated the course of Covid 19 clinic treatments.
It was shown here that men are more often affected by severe courses than women.
Two thirds of the patients on artificial respiration were therefore male.
In addition, the risk increases with age: 52 percent of inpatient Covid 19 patients were 70 years or older.
Only a third of the corona patients in the hospital are younger than 60 years.
"However, we also see a lot of serious illnesses in younger people," emphasizes Klauber.
After all, around a quarter of those who were ventilated fell into this age group.
In addition, people aged 50 to 69 are ventilated for an average of 16 days for significantly longer than people over the age of 80.
With them it's only ten days.
According to the AOK, 18 percent of Covid-19 patients died during their hospital stay, compared to 51 percent for artificially ventilated patients.
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"The figures make it clear that the intensive care units can quickly fill up with middle-aged people who have not yet been vaccinated in view of the increasing number of infections," warned Wido managing director Klauber.
Intensive care physicians have already reported corresponding trends in clinics.
Medical staff is the limiting factor
The analysis is based on data on the care of AOK insured persons in hospitals.
Information on 52,000 infected people who were hospitalized from February to November was included in the evaluation of the corona course.
The examinations were part of a larger hospital report by the AOK.
According to the fund, this came to the conclusion that inpatient care should generally be centralized in larger hospitals.
"We don't need less centralization and specialization of clinics, but more," said Martin Litsch, head of the AOK federal association.
That shows the crisis.
According to the study, around 1250 hospitals were involved in the care of AOK-insured corona patients.
Half of these clinics treated 86 percent of the cases.
The other corona diseases were distributed among many houses with often very small case numbers that are not necessarily optimally equipped to care for this serious disease.
The fight against the pandemic has shown that qualified medical staff is "the decisive and at the same time limiting factor," explained Litsch.
On the other hand, there is no point in simply setting up additional intensive care beds and ventilators.
Larger hospitals are better able to use the corresponding human resources flexibly and at the same time to maintain normal supply operations.
How do corona mutations affect the occupancy of intensive care units?
The Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine comments on the occupancy of the intensive care units.
You can find out what an extrapolation resulted in, taking into account the faster spread through mutations, in the video.
Source: WORLD