How Has The COVID-19 Pandemic Impacted Patients With Other Diseases And Pathogens, And How Are Health Care Systems Responding?

Several months have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, and although the science world seems to be advancing when it comes to vaccine development, massive damage has already been done.

More than 20 million confirmed cases (not counting the numerous asymptomatic ones), along with almost one million deaths have created havoc in many health care systems around the world.

SARS-CoV-2 is spreading even more easily than influenza, at the same time causing greater damage and more severe complications. Therefore, COVID-19 patients are usually required to spend a considerable amount of time in a hospital bed. This ultimately results in overcrowded hospitals, which are frequently short-staffed as well, either because the medical professionals have also been infected, or due to their sheer exhaustion because of constant hard work, since the majority of them work in seemingly endless shifts.

Hospitals are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients

The glaring problem of overloaded hospitals manifests in many different forms, with almost every single one of them having a negative impact on the health care system. Other than the shortage of blood products and potential complications when it comes to organ transplantation, we are witnessing a rising number of patients who are being left without medical care.

This infamous trend is largely caused by health facilities' current inability to provide substantial care to everybody in need, resulting in the cancellation of unnecessary surgeries, doctors shifting to areas outside of their expertise in an effort to help their colleagues, and other actions with the common goal of utilizing and preserving the remaining workforce.

For example, some hospitals in France are witnessing a major decrease in the number of urgent cases in the ER, such as strokes and heart attacks. Unfortunately, since these conditions are fairly common, and not likely reduced in number, this is most likely a result of the health system's blatant inability to cope with an increasing number of COVID-19 patients, but it may also be due to patients evading traditional health care.

Patients are less likely to seek medical attention since the pandemic started

As you may have noticed, not a small number of are people rejecting the mere idea of going to a hospital during this pandemic, especially if their underlying conditions don’t produce any dangerous symptoms. And although these patients may benefit the health care system by staying at home, they also risk developing potential complications, which may be too difficult to resolve later in life.

However, it’s safe to say that at least a fraction of these patients have established different tactics regarding their hospital visits. Some of them opted for consultation via phone, or other telemedicine-related approaches, whereas others could have gone to smaller, walk-in clinics, which generally don’t treat COVID-19 patients. These, and other similar methods have taken some weight off large hospitals, and could, in future, present an alternative for non-complicated patients.

Some respiratory issues manifest with fever and coughing, just like COVID-19, and therefore patients are reluctant to go and visit their doctor if needed, which ultimately may result in an inadequate response when it comes to diseases such as tuberculosis. We saw this in countries such as India and Nigeria, which have marked a decline when it comes to the number of patients with tuberculosis, as well as patients with cholera in Yemen. The lack of usual health care is expected to affect a large number of children in poor sub-Saharan countries, who are in risk of malaria and complications caused by malnutrition.

The domino effect of the pandemic

Even preventing diseases has been made difficult due to social distancing, which resulted in the decline of mass vaccination campaigns in the third world. The economic impact, such as issues regarding shipping and closed borders, may cause a rise in patients with HIV, due to the lack of condoms and medications being imported, as well as the lack of basic education and testing.

Other potential problems include behavioral and nutritional changes caused by long periods of lockdown and self-isolation. Unfortunately, we’re yet to see the end of the COVID-related increase in stress, anxiety and depression, especially in people who were spending huge amounts of time in lockdown. In people with pre-existing mental disorders, it is very likely that this situation may worsen their underlying condition. We may also expect an increase in the number of suicides, as well as drug and alcohol related problems.

You’ve probably noticed that, whenever you try to search for medical related stuff online, you get an avalanche of COVID-19 information even if you were looking for something completely different, so you need to really try hard in order to shift attention to what you were initially searching for.

The current pandemic has stolen the limelight as the “number one” medical condition, which caused the public eye to seemingly forget that other diseases are, unfortunately, still present in our everyday lives. In a cruel twist of fate, it may turn out that some of the worst consequences of COVID-19 pandemic actually impact patients not suffering from it.