What is the Russian disease “suddenly ill” and can it also be transmitted to the Netherlands?

Sergey Bezgodov/Shutterstock

Another person died in Russia from the disease “suddenly well.” The victim is 46-year-old Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Pyotr Kucherenko. More and more Dutch people are now beginning to worry: could the disease also appear in our country?

Although not much is known about the “sudden illness,” scientists report that the disease mainly occurs in people in high positions, such as politicians, generals, and oligarchs. “This is likely because the people in these positions talk a lot,” says researcher Andre Wittmann. “This can lead to dehydration and general malaise.”

According to Witman, it can take a long time for a person to experience symptoms: “We see that these symptoms often only appear when a person begins to travel, for example by plane. Only then will someone have enough time to think about what they are really feeling.”

Whitman stresses that the chance of spreading the disease is small: “People with ‘sudden malaise’ often die so quickly that there is no chance of infecting others,” says the researcher.

Previously, people were also worried that the disease would “suddenly fall out of a window, a boat, or a ladder”, but this condition turned out to be very localized and has not yet appeared in other parts of the world.