<
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/18/return-of-victorian-era-diseases-to-the-uk-scabies-measles-rickets-scurvy>
"Before Covid-19, Dr Farzana Hussain says, it was rare for her to see a case of
scabies at her GP surgery in Newham, east London, but since the pandemic, the
number of patients with the parasitic skin infection has increased
dramatically.
“By the time a patient comes to me for advice, everyone in the family has it,
including all the children,” she says. “The itch is maddening. People demand
immediate treatment.”
Transmitted by tiny mites that burrow and lay eggs under the skin, scabies is a
disease associated with squalor and overcrowding. Spread by close personal
contact, it is so infectious that during the Victorian period, workhouses
maintained separate “itch” wards so those infested with the mites could be
segregated and treated before being allowed into the workhouse proper.
According to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), scabies cases
are now running at three per 100,000 of the population in England, double the
five-year seasonal average. That translates into approximately 2,000 cases of
scabies a year. However, in the north, the worst affected region of England,
GPs are seeing rates as high as six per 100,000.
Scabies is not the only disease that appears to be making a comeback in Rishi
Sunak’s Britain. In 2022, 423 patients were admitted to English hospitals with
rickets, a disease caused by lack of sunlight and inadequate levels of vitamin
D. The same year, 188 people were treated for scurvy, a condition caused by not
eating enough fresh fruit and vegetables, leading to a deficiency in vitamin C.
Both scurvy and rickets are often seen as proxies for malnutrition, hospital
admissions for which are running at about 10,000 a year in England, four times
the level of 12 years ago. Little wonder that Dr Clare Gerada, the former
president of the RCGP, has warned the UK is in danger of “going back to the
Victorian era”.
Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at University
College London, agrees. “The idea we are starting to suffer the same diseases
that in Victorian times people on long ocean voyages suffered because of the
shortage of citrus fruits is simply horrendous,” he said recently.
For Marmot, the surge in infectious diseases reflects the cost of living crisis
and decade-long cuts to social services and public health, which have left
Britain with one of the poorest and most vulnerable populations in Europe."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
