Leading Israeli doctors are warning that the “collateral” effects of the coronavirus crisis could cause more deaths than the coronavirus itself, a Times of Israel (TOA) report said.

Anthony Luder, director of the Pediatric Department at Ziv Medical Center in Tzefat, told TOA that people are putting their lives and the lives of their children in danger because they’re terrified to go to the hospital during the current crisis.

“We’re starting to see growing numbers of issues where children are sick, being kept at home, and then developing complications that are difficult to treat and dangerous to the child,” Luder said.

“A kid came in with a burst appendix — the appendix had burst at home. The parents had done nothing because they were frightened to go to an emergency room. By the time he came in, he had a big abscess in his abdomen and needed surgery.”

“We are starting to accumulate cases like this. We had a kid who was at home for four or five days with meningitis. It’s entirely plausible that more people will die of the knock-on effects than of coronavirus itself.”

Other doctors are worried about adults – the amount of Israelis arriving at the emergency room with symptoms of a heart attack or stroke has decreased dramatically since the coronavirus crisis began. Doctors warn that the percentage of people experiencing these potentially fatal conditions hasn’t suddenly decreased due to the coronavirus and anyone experiencing worrisome symptoms should come to the emergency room immediately.

Luder added that canceled appointments for routine doctor visits for chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease could also wreak havoc on people’s health.

“As this emergency extends to weeks and possibly months, people needing evaluations for chronic conditions — hypertension, epilepsy, diabetes, heart problems and a long list — will not be followed up. These things can cause acute problems and possibly complications that can prove irreversible.”

The TOA report also quoted a report by the Taub Institue, a socioeconomic research institute, that bought up further concerns about collateral damage from the coronavirus crisis.

“If the crisis is stopping us from doing early scans for cancers and heart disease, this could actually have a larger effect than the deaths from coronavirus,” Alex Weinreb, research director at the Taub Center, said.

Weinreb elaborated that Israel is a world leader in reducing mortality rates from cancer and heart disease and reduced screening will definitely lead to negative consequences.

“These diseases claim around 17,000 lives each year and if screening is disrupted we fear a significant increase,” he said, claiming that the coronavirus crisis will lead to a two-year period with higher than usual mortality rates from diseases that would normally be caught in their early stages.

Weinreb believes that the deaths occurring from reduced screening can potentially outnumber the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)