The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic on notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan: A database analysis

Abstract

Introduction The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in Taiwan remains unclear. Materials and Methods The number of cases of NID (n = 42) between January and September 2019 and 2020 were obtained from the open database from Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. Results The number of NID cases was 21,895 between January and September 2020, which was lower than the number of cases during the same period in 2019 (n = 24,469), with a decline in incidence from 102.9 to 91.7 per 100,000 people in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Fourteen airborne/droplet, 11 fecal-oral, seven vector-borne, and four direct-contact transmitted NID had an overall reduction of 2,700 (-28.1%), 156 (-23.0%), 557 (-54.8%), and 73 (-45.9%) cases, respectively, from 2019 to 2020. Similar trends were observed for the changes in incidence, which were 11.5 (-28.4%), 6.7 (-23.4%), 2.4 (-55.0%), and 0.3 (-46.2%) per 100,000 people for airborne/droplet, fecal-oral, vector-borne, and direct-contact transmitted NID, respectively. In addition, all the 38 imported NID showed a reduction of 632 (-73.5%) cases from 2019 to 2020. In contrast, 4 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) showed an increase of 903 (+7.2%) cases from 2019 to 2020, which was attributed to the increase in gonorrhea (from 3,220 to 5,028). The overall incidence of STDs increased from 52.5 to 56.0 per 100,000 people, with a percentage change of +6.7%. Conclusion This study demonstrated a collateral benefit of COVID-19 prevention measures for various infectious diseases, except STDs, in Taiwan, during the COVID-19 epidemic.

The silent epidemic of lymphogranuloma venereum inside the COVID-19 pandemic in Madrid, Spain, March 2020 to February 2021

“…The decrease in the number of LGV cases during the strict lockdown is in agreement with other studies [ 5 ]. This outcome was probably related to the Spanish government’s decision to minimise all healthcare activities that were not dedicated to COVID-19 in primary care centres, such as STI clinics.…”

“…As other authors have reported, this led to a reduction in the number of consultations [ 6 ] and in testing volume [ 7 ], since only patients with LGV symptoms were able to access the centres. In fact, a similar drop has been reported for a wide range of communicable diseases [ 5 ]. During this period, patients may have postponed visiting any medical centres, which may have caused more severe symptoms and additional complications in the absence of treatment [ 8 ].…”

Sexually Transmitted Infections, the Epidemic That Persists After the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Time-series Analysis of the Primary Care Electronic Health Records Covering About 5 Million People in Catalonia

“…In our study, the STI with lesser reduction was syphilis. This result is consistent with other data reported elsewhere, showing little increased gures and reductions of less than 10% in syphilis trends [9,14,18,20]. This may suggest that people presenting more severe clinical conditions seek medical attendance, leading to a speci c STI diagnosis [10].…”

Co-benefits of nonpharmaceutical intervention against COVID-19 on infectious diseases in China: A large population-based observational study

“…A similar reduction was found for seasonal influenza in Japan [7] and tuberculosis in Jiangsu, China [8] . In the Taiwan region, the cases of notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) decreased dramatically [9] , except for sexually transmitted diseases [10] . In contrast, Buckley et al found that social distancing led to a marked decrease in sexually transmitted diseases and foodborne infections in Spain [11] .…”