Epidemiology of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Japan: Descriptive Findings and Lessons Learned through Surveillance during the First Three Waves

Abstract

The infectious disease surveillance system in Japan mainly consists of (1) pathogen reporting (laboratory-based surveillance) and (2) patient reporting. In the National Epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Diseases (NESID) Program, information concerning infectious diseases in Japan is collected and published, and occurrence and trends are assessed, based on reporting from physicians and veterinarians. This system of infectious disease surveillance in Japan is pursuant to Articles 12 through 16 of the Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients with Infectious Diseases (hereinafter, referred to as the "Infectious Diseases Control Law"), in effect since April 1, 1999. The NESID Program defines appropriate systems to be established, through cooperation from physicians and other healthcare professionals, with the aim of taking effective and adequate measures toward the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases and preventing their occurrence and spread, through the accurate assessment and analysis of infectious disease information, rapid provision and disclosure of the resultant information to the general public and healthcare professionals, verification of the detection status and characteristics of pathogens that are circulating, and formulation of adequate infection control measures, through the collection and analysis of pathogen information. The notifiable disease and sentinel surveillance systems are comprehensive; notifiable disease surveillance consists of seven category I infectious diseases, seven category II infectious diseases, five category III infectious diseases, 44 category IV infectious diseases, and 23 category V infectious diseases. Sentinel surveillance comprehensively includes the sentinel surveillance of influenza, 10 pediatric diseases at sentinel pediatric sites, eight diseases at designated sentinel sites, two diseases at ophthalmology sentinel sites, and four sexually transmitted infections (STI) at STI sentinel sites. In addition, a system of reporting from suspected case sentinel sites was introduced on April 1, 2007, in order to collect information from designated medical facilities in the suspected case stage, before the physician's confirmatory diagnosis, so that the occurrence of an infectious disease can be rapidly identified, including those due to bioterrorism. The revised Infectious Diseases Control Law was proclaimed on November 21, 2013, incorporating the strengthened functions of pathogen information collection. History of the NESID ProgramIn Japan, the laboratory-based surveillance system was established before a system for patient reporting was introduced. Funded by the national budget, laboratory-based surveillance first began in July 1981 and targeted 18 diseases. In January 1987, an online system was introduced that targeted 27 diseases. In this manner, the Program has been operated with stepwise enhancement and expansion. After the Infectious Diseases Control Law was established in September 1998 and took effect in Ap...

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in temperature-sensitive cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality in Japan

“…In Japan, COVID-19 began to spread in March 2020 (cf. Fig 2 ) [ 29 ]. Because decreases in MR adj from spring to summer were found not only in 2020 but also in 2019 (pre-COVID-19 period), the overlap between the decreasing period and the COVID-19 spreading period seems to be incidental.…”

Effectiveness of feedback control and the trade-off between death by COVID-19 and costs of countermeasures

“…We ignored a possibility that a successive long strong behavioral restriction causes the bankruptcy of business for which remote work cannot be substituted. The COVID-19 cases resurged in Japan from November, 2020 to January, 2021, [ 1 , 27 ], and the number of infected deaths also increased in Tokyo [ 60 ]. Karako et al [ 27 ] argued that this was because people seemed accustomed to the situation of this epidemic and their level of activity was not reduced during the period.…”

Adverse events after administration of the first and second doses of messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in Japanese subjects aged 12–18 years

“…This finding is in agreement with those of previous studies conducted in Japanese adults >18 years old. 3 …”

“…COVID-19 is an acute respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV-2 that has spread globally since the end of 2019. 1 – 3 In Japan, the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, and it has featured six major waves of spread, resulting in 15.9 million infections and more than 35,000 deaths. 4 Two types of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have been approved in Japan, and vaccination was initiated in February 2021.…”