Cases of scabies, measles, rickets, and scurvy are surging in the UK, prompting health experts to warn of a return to Victorian-era conditions. Scabies rates in England have doubled to three per 100,000, with northern regions seeing six per 100,000, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners.
In 2022, 423 hospital admissions for rickets and 188 for scurvy were recorded in England. Both conditions are linked to malnutrition, which has quadrupled to 10,000 admissions annually over the past 12 years. Dr Clare Gerada, former RCGP president, said the UK risks “going back to the Victorian era”.
Measles cases rose to 1,603 in 2023, four times the 2021 figure, according to the UK Health Security Agency. Sexually transmitted infections also spiked: gonorrhoea cases hit 82,592 in 2022, the highest since records began in 1918, and syphilis reached 8,692, the most since 1948.
Experts blame poverty and public health cuts. Sir Michael Marmot of University College London said the return of diseases like scurvy is “horrendous”. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports 14.4 million Britons lived in poverty in 2021-22, with 6 million in “very deep” poverty. Children in deprived areas are twice as likely to die from infections, and excess deaths in the most deprived areas were nearly 11,000 higher in 2020.
