Nationwide infection control strategy lowered seasonal respiratory infection rate: occupational health care perspective during the COVID-19 epidemic in Finland

Abstract

Background: Respiratory infection is the 4th most common reason for absence from work in Finland. There is limited knowledge of how social distancing affects the spread of respiratory infections during respiratory epidemics. We assessed the effect of nationwide infection control strategies against coronavirus disease in 2020 on various respiratory infections (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems code J06) in occupational outpatient clinics. Methods: We used occupational healthcare data of respiratory infection J06 diagnoses from 2017 to 2020 obtained from the largest health service provider in Finland. The data was divided into three 252 day-long pieces and was weekdaymatched and smoothed by 7-day-moving average. The difference in the J06 diagnosis rate between the follow-up years was measured using Pearson correlation. Possible confounding by sex, age, and region was investigated in a stratified analysis. Confounding by respiratory syncytial virus was analysed using nationwide data of confirmed cases obtained from the national registry. Results: In the second quarter of 2020, the trend in the daily number of J06 diagnoses was significantly different from the follow-up years 2019 and 2018. The number of J06 diagnoses peaked between March and April 2020 with roughly 2-fold higher count compared to normal. The timing of these peaks matched with the government issued infection control strategies and lockdowns. Based on stratified analysis, the increase in the number of J06 diagnoses was not confounded by region, age, or sex. Moreover, the rapid increase in the number of J06 diagnoses was not governed by the respiratory syncytial virus. Conclusion: Nationwide infection control strategies were effective to slow down the spread of common respiratory infectious diseases in the occupational population.

Hospital Admissions for Respiratory Tract Infections in Children Aged 0–5 Years for 2017/2023

“…The lockdown restrictions that were implemented to control the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 have likely lowered the incidence of COVID-19 and hospital admissions with COVID-19 in Norway. The restrictions may also have controlled the transmission of other respiratory tract infections (RTI) that are common in children, i.e., transmission of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or influenza viruses (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Consequently, children may have been less exposed to viruses causing RTI during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Reduction of acute respiratory infections in day-care by non-pharmaceutical interventions: a narrative review

“…Typically, one of the two genotypes (A and B) tends to dominate in a given season, with an annual alternation or co-circulation ( 61 ). In some countries at northern latitudes, biennial variation with alternating severe and mild winter peaks have been observed ( 62 ). Therefore, a child born during a high-burden RSV season faces a hospitalization hazard 1.68 times higher than that of a child born in a low season ( 63 ).…”

Antimicrobial prescribing in a secondary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This might be related to decreased patient visits for respiratory consultations and possibly the reduction of the infections due to implementation of public health measures such as less mixing of the population and social distancing restrictions. 24–26 …”