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Respiratory diseases are endemic
The wave of illness could cost up to 36 billion euros
Pain, cough, fever: the Germans are overwhelmed by a wave of illness. The doctors are groaning and the economic damage amounts to billions, according to calculations by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
According to calculations by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the current wave of respiratory diseases and flu could cause economic costs of up to 36 billion euros. “The loss of jobs due to illness alone could mean a loss of gross value added of 32 to 36 billion euros for the German economy,” says the IfW calculation, which is available to “Welt am Sonntag”.
The hypothesis is based on the high morbidity, the sharp increase in new respiratory infections since October and the current rapid increase in new influenza infections. The number of new cases per week is currently up to 53 percent higher than in comparable weeks of the last severe flu wave before Corona in the 2017/2018 season. According to the IfW, the actual costs of lost work depend largely on the duration and severity of the flu epidemic.
Even before Christmas, the number of cases of respiratory diseases and flu was extremely high. According to the report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there are around 7.9 million acute respiratory diseases nationwide, regardless of doctor visits. After Corona dominated for a long time, the RKI recently announced the beginning of the RSV wave (RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections). At the same time, flu detections have also increased significantly.
The high number of infections in acute respiratory diseases also pushes practices to their limits. “We are currently experiencing exactly what we warned about in the summer,” said the President of the General Practitioners Association, Markus Beier, to the German editorial team before Christmas. “GP training is once again at its limit, even though the flu season hasn’t started yet. » In many places, patients can no longer get appointments, waiting times are getting longer and there is almost no time left for the treatment itself.
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