Publication date: Jul 15, 2025
Occupational infections pose substantial health risks across various professional sectors. Understanding their precise diagnoses, severity and distribution among different occupations is crucial for effective prevention. Data on recognized occupational diseases from the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV, 2018-2022) and the Social Insurance for Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture (SVLFG, 2019-2023) were analyzed by pathogens, occupations, and reduction in earning capacity. SARS-CoV-2 infections were excluded. The majority of recognized infectious occupational diseases (71. 5%) occurred in health care, welfare, or laboratories. Among these, parasitic diseases (57%) and tuberculosis (35%) were dominating. Among zoonoses, Borrelia burgdorferi was the most frequent pathogen (41% and 58%, respectively). Plasmodium falciparum dominated among the tropical diseases (52%). Specific pathogens and occupational sectors are responsible for most of the occupational diseases with the majority being not vaccine-preventable. Prevention should therefore focus on organisational and technical measures as well as non-pharmaceutical interventions.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Germany | Epidemiology |
| Professional | Occupational disease |
| Vaccine | Occupational infection |
| Zoonoses |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | infectious diseases |
| disease | MESH | infections |
| disease | MESH | occupational diseases |
| disease | MESH | SARS-CoV-2 infections |
| disease | MESH | parasitic diseases |
| disease | MESH | tuberculosis |
| pathway | KEGG | Tuberculosis |
| disease | MESH | zoonoses |
| disease | IDO | pathogen |
| disease | IDO | infection |