In Reply

Letters to the Editor Health Status of the Homeless in Frankfurt by Maria Goetzens, Carmen Speck, and Pramod M. Shah in issue 43/2021

We thank PD Dr Katsoumas and PD Dr Schalk for their comments. It is regrettable that the most recent report from the Federal Health Monitoring system does not include any data on the situation of homeless persons (1).

The aim of our publication was to examine persons who wanted to spend the night refuge for rough sleepers during winter season, primarily for communicable diseases that can be transmitted through close contact (2). We too assume that the rate of certain infectious diseases is probably extremely high. The referenced literature did not provide any data on the situation in Germany. The resources of the Elisabeth-Straßenambulanz (ESA, Elisabeth outpatient surgery center for homeless persons) are too limited to carry out its own study of real infection rates. We are, however, participating in a data collection undertaken by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (3).

Oette et al. found asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in four of 130 homeless people in the context of a prospective study (4). This is the only publication from Germany that we know of.

We are currently working on an evaluation regarding SARS-CoV-2 (manuscript meanwhile published in „Hessisches Ärzteblatt“, 06/2022, 358).

DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.m2022.0084

On behalf of the authors

Dr. Maria Goetzens

Elisabeth-Straßenambulanz, Caritasverband Frankfurt e. V., Germany

Conflict of interest statement

The authors of both contributions declare that no conflict of interest exists.

References

1. Robert Koch-Institut (eds): Gesundheit in Deutschland. Gesundheitsberichterstattung des Bundes. Gemeinsam getragen von RKI und Destatis. RKI, Berlin, November 2015,. www.rki.de/DE/Content/Gesundheitsmonitoring/Gesundheitsberichterstattung/GesInDtld/GesInDtld_node.html (last accessed on 15 December 2021).

2. Goetzens M, Speck C, Shah PM: Health status of the homeless in Frankfurt. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2021; 118: 737–8

3. Püschel et al. am Institut für Rechtsmedizin in Hamburg: „National survey on psychiatric and somatic health of homeless individuals during the covid-19 pandemic”. www.limesurvey.uni-hamburg.de/index.php/742177/lang-et (last accessed on 15 December 2021).

4. Oette M, Corpora S, Baron M, et al.: The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among homeless persons in Cologne, Germany—an epidemiological study at the height of the third wave. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2021; 118: 678–