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. 2024 Sep 9:12:e18048.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.18048. eCollection 2024.

Burden changes in notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ying-Fei Yang  1 , Yu-Miao Chen  2 , Si-Yu Chen  2 , Po-Hao Chiu  2 , Szu-Chieh Chen  2   3
Affiliations

Burden changes in notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ying-Fei Yang et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the disease burden of Taiwan's notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs). We compared disease burdens between the pandemic and pre-pandemic year of 2020 (with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)) and 2010 (without NPIs), respectively, to understand the overall pandemic impact on NIDs in Taiwan.

Methods: Forty-three national NIDs were analyzed using the Statistics of Communicable Diseases and Surveillance Report by estimating the premature death and disability via different transmission categories, sex, and age groups. The study evaluated the impact of diseases by assessing the years lost due to death (YLLs), the duration of living with disability (YLDs), and the overall disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by measuring both the severity of the illness and its duration.

Results: Taiwan recorded 1,577 (2010) and 1,260 (2020) DALYs per million population and lost 43 NIDs, decreasing 317 DALYs per million population. Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and acute hepatitis B/D were the leading causes of DALYs, accounting for 89% (2010) and 77% (2020).

Conclusion: Overall, this study provided the first insight of changes in disease burdens in NIDs between pre- and post-COVID-19 based on a nationwide viewpoint for further preventive measures and interventions to be focused on specific diseases by associated health administrations and policies.

Keywords: Disease burden; Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs); Notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs); Public health; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. (A, B) The number of cases of notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) sorted by different modes of transmission and (C, D) their associated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per million populations in Taiwan in the year of 2010 and 2020. (E) The percentage of change in DALYs per million populations in the year of 2010 and 2020 by different modes of transmission.
The symbols indicate the airborne/droplet transmitted diseases (AD), sexually transmitted and blood-borne diseases (SB), fecal-oral transmitted diseases (FO), direct-contact transmitted diseases (DC), and vector-borne transmitted diseases (VB), respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2. YLLs and YLDs for five modes of transmission of 43 notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in (A) 2010 and (B) 2020. Overall contribution percentage in (C) 2010 and (D) 2020. Burden change of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2010 and 2020 for specific (E) Gender/Mode of transmission and different. (F) Age groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3. DALYs estimation for airborne and droplet transmitted diseases of 14 NIDs in (A) 2020 and (B) 2010. Temporal variation in case numbers notified in Jan. to Dec. in 2010, compared to average cases in 2016–2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020–2022 (pandemic), of a selection of infectious diseases including (C) Tuberculosis, (D) Influenza cases with severe complication, and (E) Invasive haemophilus influenza Type b infection.
The scale of the secondary vertical axis shows the average monthly cases of COVID-19. The formal classification “Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens” refers to COVID-19.
Figure 4
Figure 4. DALYs estimation for sexually and blood-borne transmitted diseases of 5 NIDs in (A) 2020 and (B) 2010. Temporal variation in case numbers notified in Jan. to Dec. in 2010, compared to average cases in 2016–2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2020–2022 (pandemic), of a selection of infectious diseases (C) HIV/AIDS, (D) acute hepatitis B/D, and (E) acute hepatitis C.
The scale of the secondary vertical axis shows the average monthly cases of COVID-19.
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