The Dickensian disease is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West.

The Dickensian disease is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West.

Just when you get rid of one cough, another emerges in its place.

While the the Covid-19 pandemic officially ended last year, cases of pertussis — or whooping cough, as it’s more commonly known — have been spiking across Europe in recent months.

The retro infection, a staple of Charles Dickens’ novels, is the latest Victorian-era ailment to stage a comeback in the West after an increase in measles, syphilis, gout, leprosy and malaria.

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A report from the British Medical Journal says that part of the reason for the spread is a drop in vaccination rates.

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Europe’s disease agency also suggested Covid could be to blame for the rise.

“The current increase is potentially linked to lower circulation during Covid-19 pandemic, combined with suboptimal vaccination uptake in certain groups during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it wrote in a March report.

Getting people vaccinated is key to stemming the outbreak, but that’s becoming easier said than done.

  • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    73·
    8 months ago

    “While the the Covid-19 pandemic officially ended last year”

    It actually didn’t, the WHO still has it as a pandemic https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19. They declared the emergency over because people had accepted the consequences of the disease, but its still a pandemic.

    Everything is up especially strokes and heart attacks but especially infections of diseases. The vaccination percentage hasn’t dropped much. TB is on the rise for example and its due to immune system damage that Covid causes in a lot of people. It can take a year or more to recover from the immune disturbances that Covid causes, its driving a lot of increased infection. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x