Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Photo
Topics: Health, UK News, Cost of Living
Joe Harker
Doctors are warning that some diseases from the Victorian era are on the rise again as they are worried that poverty is one of the driving factors behind illness and workload on NHS staff.
They have urged the government to do more to tackle poverty and inequality, with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) warning that 89 percent of their members are worried about health inequality.
Basically, not only is it expensive to be poor, it seems to be quite unhealthy too.
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A whopping 46 percent of RCP members said that at least half of their workload was linked to treating illnesses, which can be a result of socioeconomic factors such as 'poor housing, education, and employment'.
They also pointed out that there's an almost 20 year gap in the life expectancy in the most and least deprived areas of England.
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Among the diseases on the rise are the Victorian-era afflictions of scabies and erysipelas.
Scabies is on the rise, which is a cause for concern.
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In the 12 months leading up to April 2024, there were 3,689 cases of the disease recorded in England, which represents a significant rise on the year before where there were 2,128 cases diagnosed.
It's up 73 percent in the span of a year and is transferred through close contact with mites as they burrow into your skin.
It produces red marks and a rash, sores made of crusted skin can also rise up as a result of the unpleasant disease, and is spread through skin contact.
The signs of the disease are quite clear so you should be able to tell if you have it, and if you do then you'll need to wash your clothes and sheets at 60C or higher to clear out the mites, as well as clean your general living space.
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Even worse, the itching can lead to a skin infection as further cuts and sores can worsen your health.
Doctors have also seen the resurgence of erysipelas, a bacterial infection on the upper levels of the skin which tends to cover affected tissue with a bright red rash.
Treatment for erysipelas requires a course of antibiotics.
Other doctors have warned that people's living conditions means they've got 'poor nutritional status due to poverty', while several of their patients have suffered with hypothermia from not being able to put the heating on at home.
The RCP said that, by 2040, they expect about 2.5 million more people to be living with a major illness.