Wave of illness could cost up to 36 billion euros
Aching limbs, coughs, fever - Germans are being overwhelmed by a wave of illness. Doctors are groaning and the economic damage is running into billions, as calculated 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 and influenza illnesses could cause economic costs of up to 36 billion euros. "The German economy could suffer a loss in gross value added of 32 to 36 billion euros due to sickness-related absenteeism alone," according to the IfW's calculation, which is available to the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag".
The assumption is based on the high sickness rate, the sharp rise in new respiratory illnesses since October and the current rapid increase in new influenza infections. The number of new cases per week is currently up to 53% higher than in the comparable weeks of the last severe flu epidemic before coronavirus in the 2017/2018 season. According to the IfW, how high the costs actually turn out to be due to the loss of working hours will largely depend on the duration and severity of the flu epidemic.
The number of cases of respiratory and influenza-related illnesses was already extremely high before Christmas. According to the report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there were an estimated 7.9 million acute respiratory illnesses nationwide, regardless of visits to the doctor. After corona in particular has dominated for some time, the RKI recently announced the start of the RSV wave (RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus infections). At the same time, the number of flu cases has also increased significantly.
The high infection figures for acute respiratory diseases are also pushing practices to their limits. "We are currently experiencing exactly what we warned about back in the summer," Markus Beier, Chairman of the Association of General Practitioners, told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland before Christmas. "GP surgeries are once again running on empty - even though the flu season hasn't even started yet." In many places, patients are no longer getting appointments, waiting times are getting longer and longer and there is hardly any time left for the treatment itself.
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The wave of respiratory and influenza illnesses in Germany is affecting not only the health of its citizens but also their economy. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, these illnesses could result in economic costs of up to 36 billion euros due to sickness-related absenteeism.
Source: www.ntv.de
