The number of cases of respiratory diseases in Swiss hospitals has increased significantly over the past decade

Respiratory diseases are increasingly causing problems for the Swiss population. This is evident from the figures published yesterday by the Federal Statistical Office (BFS) on hospital admissions between 2012 and 2022. The federal statisticians noted a strong increase of 37 percent during the period examined. This is a significant increase compared to other diseases in the same period, which only increased by 6.4 percent.

The most striking increase is the number of hospital admissions due to lung and bronchial diseases, or the lower respiratory tract. The increase over the past ten years amounts to 71 percent. These hospital cases were the driving force behind the overall increase in all respiratory diseases.

Between 2012 and 2019, a significant increase of 39 percent was recorded in respiratory diseases. The BFS cites the increase in flu cases as the reason. Then the pandemic came and the flu almost completely disappeared due to the corona protective measures. Nevertheless, due to Covid-19, there was a second significant increase in lower respiratory tract diseases, especially pneumonia, between 2019 and 2022.

In 2020 and 2021, the number of hospital-acquired pneumonia cases exceeded the 2019 figure by around 64 percent – ​​with more than three-fifths linked to a Covid-19 diagnosis. Fewer hospital admissions due to pneumonia were again registered in 2022, but still significantly more than in 2019. The share with a Covid-19 diagnosis also fell.

In contrast, there was a decline in hospital admissions for acute bronchitis or bronchiolitis and influenza between 2019 and 2021, followed by another sharp increase in 2022. Hospital admissions for acute bronchiolitis or bronchitis even reached record levels in 2022.

Evelin Bucheli Laffer, senior infectious disease and infection prevention physician at Aarau Cantonal Hospital, explains the increase with three factors. Firstly, the demographics of the Swiss population. “Anyone who is older has a greater risk of complications from respiratory viruses,” explains the infectious disease specialist. Second, more people are receiving immunosuppressive therapies and are therefore at greater risk of being hospitalized if they have a viral infection.

“Third, and this is probably the most important factor: there are more readily available and increasingly broader diagnostics for looking for viruses, which have become more widely used over the past decade,” says Bucheli Laffer. This means that more respiratory infections are diagnosed and reported as such. “The patients were previously hospitalized without evidence of pathogens, but with a different diagnosis.”

In 2022 alone, respiratory diseases led to 94,350 hospital admissions, accounting for 8 percent of all inpatient hospital stays. There are also cases where respiratory disease was only a secondary diagnosis. In total, one fifth of all hospital patients had a respiratory disease in 2022.

About 60 percent of diseases in 2022 affected the lower respiratory tract. In most people, these subsequently lead to pneumonia (31.6 percent), then to acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis and flu. Upper respiratory tract diseases, often of a chronic nature, were responsible for a quarter of hospital admissions.

Acute diseases of the lungs and bronchi lead to emergency situations in 90 percent of cases. Half of those affected by flu and pneumonia are people over 76 years of age, and half of those affected by flu are over 70 years of age. According to the BFS, pneumonia leads to relatively long hospital stays of an average of six days. Intensive care also takes a long time for pneumonia, namely 89 hours. Compared to other respiratory diseases, they also lead to death most often.

While pneumonia and flu mainly affect the elderly, bronchitis mainly affects small children, who usually need to stay in hospital for two days. Hospital admissions for respiratory diseases are also highly seasonal. It is precisely these fluctuations that pose major challenges for healthcare. In winter, sometimes more than 1,500 new hospital admissions are registered per week – in summer this value can fall below 300.

In 2022, respiratory diseases for which Covid-19 was also diagnosed resulted in more serious cases of illness than those without corona infection. In addition, patients with Covid-19 had to stay in hospital for an average of seven days, while those without coronavirus infection only had to stay for three days. Infections with Sars-CoV-2 also led to longer intensive care stays and a higher number of hospital deaths. (aargauerzeitung.ch)