Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct 11;16(10):e0258391.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258391. eCollection 2021.

Common communicable diseases in the general population in France during the COVID-19 pandemic

Titouan Launay  1 , Cécile Souty  1 , Ana-Maria Vilcu  1 , Clément Turbelin  1 , Thierry Blanchon  1 , Caroline Guerrisi  1 , Thomas Hanslik  1 , Vittoria Colizza  1 , Isabelle Bardoulat  2 , Magali Lemaître  2 , Pierre-Yves Boëlle  1   3
Affiliations

Common communicable diseases in the general population in France during the COVID-19 pandemic

Titouan Launay et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

In France, social distancing measures have been adopted to contain the spread of COVID-19, culminating in national Lockdowns. The use of hand washing, hydro-alcoholic rubs and mask-wearing also increased over time. As these measures are likely to impact the transmission of many communicable diseases, we studied the changes in common infectious diseases incidence in France during the first year of COVID-19 circulation. We examined the weekly incidence of acute gastroenteritis, chickenpox, acute respiratory infections and bronchiolitis reported in general practitioner networks since January 2016. We obtained search engine query volume for French terms related to these diseases and sales data for relevant drugs over the same period. A periodic regression model was fit to disease incidence, drug sales and search query volume before the COVID-19 period and extrapolated afterwards. We compared the expected values with observations made in 2020. During the first lockdown period, incidence dropped by 67% for gastroenteritis, by 79% for bronchiolitis, by 49% for acute respiratory infection and 90% for chickenpox compared to the past years. Reductions with respect to the expected incidence reflected the strength of implemented measures. Incidence in children was impacted the most. Reduction in primary care consultations dropped during a short period at the beginning of the first lockdown period but remained more than 95% of the expected value afterwards. In primary care, the large decrease in reported gastroenteritis, chickenpox or bronchiolitis observed during the period where many barrier measures were implemented imply that the circulation of common viruses was reduced and informs on the overall effect of these measures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: ML and IB are employees of IQVIA France. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Acute diarrhea in France during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(top) drug sales, (middle) Incidence in general practice and (bottom) search query volume.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Chickenpox in France during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(top) Incidence in general practice and (bottom) search query volume.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Bronchiolitis in France during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(top) Incidence in general practice (IQVIA) and (bottom) search query volume.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Number of viruses detected by virological confirmation in ARI consultation.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Number of general practitioner consultation in France during COVID-19 pandemic, IQVIA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Les actions du gouvernement. Available from: https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus/les-actions-du-gouvernement n.d.
    1. Henrik Salje, Tran Kiem Cécile Lefrancq Noémie, Courtejoie Noémie Bosetti Paolo, Juliette Paireau, et al.. Estimating the burden of SARS-CoV-2 in France. Science 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bernark Stoecklin S, Rolland P, Silue Y, Mailles A, Campese C, Simondon A, et al.. First cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in France: surveillance, investigations and control measures, January 2020. Euro Surveillance 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boëlle PY, Souty C, Launay T, Guerrisi C, Turbelin C, Behillil S, et al.. Excess cases of influenza-like illnesses synchronous with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, France, March 2020. Eurosurveillance 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cevik M, Kuppalli K, Kindrachuk J, Peiris M. Virology, transmission, and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. BMJ 2020. - PubMed

MeSH terms