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Dresden (dpa / sn) - The hygiene measures in the corona pandemic are apparently also having an effect on other diseases.
According to information from DAK Gesundheit, there was a significant decrease in many infectious diseases in Saxony in 2020.
This results from data from the Robert Koch Institute, announced the health insurance.
For the analysis, numbers of notifiable diseases and pathogens such as flu, measles, tuberculosis, chickenpox and noroviruses were taken into account.
"The decline in infectious diseases shows that the hygiene measures to contain the corona pandemic also partially prevent the transmission of other dangerous diseases," said Christine Enenkel, head of the DAK state representative in Saxony.
But measures such as home office, distance rules and contact restrictions would have contained the transmission of various pathogens and thus had an overall positive impact.
While more than 8,000 norovirus infections were reported in Saxony in 2019, there were only around 3,200 a year later. The number of chickenpox fell from just under 1,800 to 840. For flu, a decrease of almost twelve percent was recorded in 2020 - from almost 23,000 cases to around 20,300. However, the flu season usually has its peak in January and February, so that the first lockdown in spring should have had little impact, it said.
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According to DAK-Gesundheit, other infections such as tuberculosis, salmonella and the hantavirus also decreased significantly.
With measles - after 16 reported cases in 2019 - not a single disease was documented in the past year.
"In addition to the corona measures, the measles protection law that has been in force since March 2020 with mandatory vaccination for pupils and school staff has certainly contributed to the positive development of measles," emphasized Enenkel.