Healthcare effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Away from the direct consequences of the disease had the COVID-19 pandemic numerous effects on the health care .

Deferring doctor or hospital visits

By delaying plans, not as deemed necessary operations should capacities in hospitals are kept free. For example, in Italy and Spain, the hospitals and the health system were temporarily overloaded by the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases.

In cancer medicine in particular , this has led to debates about which operations are considered necessary and which are not; In addition, attention is drawn to the associated risks if cancer operations are delayed too long. A study of 359 clinics from 71 countries was also able to show that 28 million surgical interventions had to be postponed worldwide in the first 12 weeks of the pandemic. The international research community calculated that in Germany, for example, 85% of elective and 24% of all cancer procedures have been postponed.

In Germany , there was a general decline in family doctor visits, even with symptoms of heart attacks and strokes . The willingness to donate blood and blood plasma also decreased . The DGTI increasingly called for blood to be donated.

Spread or slow down other infectious diseases

The WHO warned against neglecting other diseases during the pandemic. The fight against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is accompanied by public campaigns for the use of mosquito nets . If this measure were to be eliminated and access to antimalarial drugs were made more difficult, the number of malaria deaths in this region could double.

The flu wave of the 2019/2020 season in Germany had a “comparatively shorter duration and a moderate number of influenza- related doctor visits” at 11 weeks . According to the epidemiological bulletin 16/2020 of the Robert Koch Institute , the nationwide measures to contain and slow down the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany have made a significant contribution to the rapid subsidence of influenza activity and shortening it by at least two weeks. Since children play an essential role in the spread of the annual flu, "especially the school closings from week 12, 2020" should be mentioned.

Antibiotic resistance

Since COVID-19 patients are often given antibiotics to treat secondary infections , this could accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance , which has been increasing for years .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “They feel when they die. It's like drowning. Just slower ”. In: The world . March 14, 2020, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Health system overloaded Spain further restricts freedom of movement. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 29, 2020, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  3. ↑ How to risk-stratify elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic? Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ CovidSurg Collaborative, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Aneel Bhangu: Elective surgery cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic: global predictive modeling to inform surgical recovery plans . In: BJS (British Journal of Surgery) . n / a, n / a, ISSN  1365-2168 , doi : 10.1002 / bjs.11746 ( wiley.com [accessed May 18, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Decline in patients with stroke or heart attack symptoms. In: wdr.de. April 3, 2020, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Call for blood donations. In: DGTI . March 9, 2020, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Malaria could be about to make a comeback - and the coronavirus is to blame. Retrieved May 11, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b Flu wave 2019/2020 , at rki.de
  9. ↑ Covid-19 May worsen the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis . In: Wired . ISSN  1059-1028 ( wired.com [accessed May 11, 2020]).