The NHS reveals ‘top 10 most worrying’ health conditions in the last year
THE NHS has revealed the ten health conditions that Brits are most worried about.
Millions of people visit the NHS website each day in order to get advice on illnesses and ailments.
Over Christmas, it was revealed that every 13 seconds, someone had visited the heartburn and acid reflux pages on the website.
And now, new figures for 2022 show that Brits were still most concerned about Covid, with over 16.3million people searching for it - making it one of the most worrying health conditions.
The most viewed pages are:
- Coronavirus (16.3 million)
- Long Covid (4.3 million)
- High blood pressure (3.8 million)
- Chickenpox (3.7 million)
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (3.5 million)
- Fever in children (3.4 million)
- Scarlet fever (3 million)
- Diarrhoea and vomiting (2.9 million)
- Tonsillitis (2.8 million)
- Rashes in babies and children (2.7 million).
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While Brits are now free from the shackles of Covid restrictions, new variants and a small surge in infections earlier in the year has kept the bug at the forefront of people's minds.
The 16.3million figure relates to Brits searching for information on symptoms of the virus, testing and how to look after yourself if you have it.
With many having had the bug, it's also been found that thousands are also experiencing long Covid, with 4.3million Brits also researching the condition.
Most people recover from Covid within a few days and make a full recovery.
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But those with long Covid have said they experience symptoms such as extreme tiredness, shortness of breath and loss of smell for over 12 weeks.
High blood pressure was the third most-visited condition, attracting 3.8 million views, while scarlet fever, chickenpox and monkeypox all saw big increases in visits, compared with 2021.
Surge in strep A cases
The increased search for scarlet fever is likely to be down to increased numbers of cases having been recorded across the UK this winter.
Medics have linked the uptick to deadly invasive Strep A, which has killed 36 children across the UK since September.
Strep A and scarlet fever are not the same illness, but the bacteria, called group A Streptococcus (group A strep) cause scarlet fever.
The most recent data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) states that a total of 38,429 notifications of scarlet fever have been logged from September 12 to January 15.
There was a pre-Christmas peak of 10,060 cases up to December 11 - compared to an average of 3,237 for the same time in the previous five years.
Experts predict that greater awareness of the condition, due to national alerts, may have resulted in more cases being reported.
The last peak season for scarlet fever notifications was 2017 to 2018 when 30,768 reports were received across the entire season.
Scarlet fever was the seventh most visited page, with 3 million visits in 2022 – seven times the amount of clicks in 2021, when there were 414,000.
NHS digital has around 2.6 million visits each day.
In 2022, the most popular page that didn't immediately refer to a health condition, was the Covid-19 vaccine booking page, the data shows.
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Joe Risk, NHS Digital’s head of delivery for the NHS website, said: "Millions of people used the NHS website in 2022 for the latest Covid information or to book a vaccination, as well as for advice on topics ranging from high blood pressure to diarrhoea and vomiting.
“Providing access to the latest medical advice and making it as easy as possible for people to access is our top priority, to ensure we continue to support and improve health across the country.”