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. 2021 Nov 10:9:771638.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.771638. eCollection 2021.

Public Health Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic Reduce the Spread of Other Respiratory Infectious Diseases

Cheng-Yi Hu  1 , Yu-Wen Tang  1 , Qi-Min Su  1 , Yi Lei  1 , Wen-Shuai Cui  1 , Yan-Yan Zhang  1 , Yan Zhou  1 , Xin-Yan Li  1 , Zhong-Fang Wang  2 , Zhu-Xiang Zhao  1
Affiliations

Public Health Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic Reduce the Spread of Other Respiratory Infectious Diseases

Cheng-Yi Hu et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Public health measures (such as wearing masks, physical distancing, and isolation) have significantly reduced the spread of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), but the impact of public health measures on other respiratory infectious diseases is unclear. Objective: To assess the correlation between public health measures and the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We collected the data from the National Health and Construction Commission in China on the number of patients with six respiratory infectious diseases (measles, tuberculosis, pertussis, scarlet fever, influenza, and mumps) from 2017 to 2020 and assessed the correlation between public health measures and the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases. Finally, we used the data of the six respiratory infectious diseases in 2021 to verify our results. Results: We found public health measures significantly reduced the incidence of measles (p = 0.002), tuberculosis (p = 0.002), pertussis (p = 0.004), scarlet fever (p = 0.002), influenza (p = 0.034), and mumps (p = 0.002) in 2020, and prevented seasonal peaks. Moreover, the effects of public health measures were most marked during the peak seasons for these infections. Of the six respiratory infectious diseases considered, tuberculosis was least affected by public health measures. Conclusion: Public health measures were very effective in reducing the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases, especially when the respiratory infectious diseases would normally have been at their peak.

Keywords: COVID-19; infectious diseases; influenza; measles; public health measures; respiratory infectious diseases; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The trends of the monthly newly confirmed cases of the six respiratory infectious diseases from 2017 to 2020 in China. (A) The trends of the monthly newly confirmed cases of measles and tuberculosis from 2017 to 2020. (B) The trends of the monthly newly confirmed cases of pertussis and scarlet fever from 2017 to 2020. (C) The trends of the monthly newly confirmed cases of influenza and mumps from 2017 to 2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The theoretical and actual trends of monthly new confirmed cases in the six respiratory infectious diseases in 2020 in China. (A) The theoretical and actual trends of monthly new confirmed cases in measles and tuberculosis in 2020 in China. (B) The theoretical and actual trends of monthly new confirmed cases in pertussis and scarlet fever in 2020 in China. (C) The theoretical and actual trends of monthly new confirmed cases in influenza and mumps in 2020 in China. The average of monthly number of newly confirmed cases from 2017 to 2019 was used to estimate the theoretical monthly number of newly confirmed cases expected in 2020, had public health measures not been adopted in 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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