Britain is being plagued by a rancid Dickensian disease epidemic – and record sex infection rates.
Cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea, scabies, scurvy, gout, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and whooping cough are surging due to diets being in the toilet and people not getting enough sun or exercise. Boozing, smoking and slumping on sofas scrolling through phones are among other factors being blamed for the disturbing resurgence of painful and potentially deadly Victorian lurgies.
Boffs add plummeting rates of vaccinations, weak immune systems and poor access to sexual health treatments is also leaving the nation exposed to killer ailments and sexual infections many think had been consigned to the history books.
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The University of Oxford-based Oxford Vaccine Group said lives are now at risk amid the disease surge due to a drop in people getting jabbed.
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It warned: “Many of the diseases we are trying to protect against have not been seen in a long time, and so the perception within the general public of the importance of vaccination seems to have dropped.”
The British Association of Dermatologists has issued an alert over an “unusually high” scourge of scabies across the UK. It’s a parasitic skin infection that was commonly caught in Victorian workhouses.
Doctors surgeries’ data also shows there has been a huge spike in scabies cases in recent weeks – particularly in the north of England. Experts fear the outbreak may be linked to students returning to university.
Medics have also warned in the British Medical Journal of scurvy raising its head again due to people not eating enough fruit and vegetables.
Cases of syphilis – rampant in the 18th and 19th centuries — are the highest they have been since 1948.
Childhood infectious diseases, including measles and whooping cough, have also seen their biggest outbreaks for a generation this year.
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Britain’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has told MPs the surge in sexually transmitted infections across the nation is linked to a fall in public health treatment resources.
Syphilis can spark life-threatening problems with the brain, heart and nerves and is branded a “very dangerous disease” with “multiple complications”. The UK Health Security Agency said there were 9,500 cases in England last year.
Gonorrhoea cases are the highest since records began in 1918 – with 85,000 reported last year in England alone.
Kids are also being battered by illnesses including measles, which is again a significant threat to their lives for the first time in decades.
Ten babies have also died this year in England from whooping cough – of which there have been more than 12,000 cases compared with only 856 cases last year.