The Incidence of Common Respiratory Viruses During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results From the Louisville COVID-19 Epidemiology Study

Abstract

Introduction: Social distancing has been utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which is also expected to reduce the spread of common respiratory viruses. Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study assessed the rate of positivity of common respiratory viruses from commercially available respiratory pathogen panel, across a five-hospital health-system, during four-week periods within March to April of 2019 and 2020. Results: During the four-week period in 2019, the percent positivity of common respiratory viruses from week one to week four decreased from 6 to 32% among the four included viruses. In the comparator period in 2020, a decrease ranging from 74 to 100% was observed from week one to week four. Conclusions: These data indicate that the social distancing efforts implemented in Louisville, Kentucky, may be associated with a decrease in incidence of common respiratory viruses. This decrease in positivity of common respiratory viruses may serve as a surrogate marker for the effect of social distancing on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Knowledge and Beliefs of Tanta University Employees Regarding Emerging Respiratory Tract Infections and Its Preventive Measures Based on Health Belief Model

“…This could be attributed to the current huge propaganda by media and health organizations about the importance of social distance to prevent dissemination of COV-19 between populations. In the same line, Brian et al, (2020) (6) , indicated that the social distancing efforts implemented in Louisville, Kentucky, may be associated with a decrease in incidence of common respiratory viruses. As well, Wong et al, (2020) (28) , reported that the More than one third of the studied employees in the current study agreed that taking the flu vaccine can reduce the risk of diseases of respiratory system (Table IV).…”

“…There are other causes of microorganisms as fungi, and chemicals such as powder or dust that accidentally penetrate into the lungs which could also function as causative agents for RTIs (6,7) . Furthermore, many factors are involved in the large variation in the prevalence of transmission of respiratory tract infection including crowdedness, extreme temperature and dense air pollution, young and old age, preexisting health conditions,and improper personal hygiene (8,9) .…”

Global influenza surveillance in times of COVID-19: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

“…5 This phenomenon is owed to individual and collective protective measures (masks, physical and social distancing, hygiene, etc. ), 6 , 7 which are factors that limit the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses, including the flu. The decline in the number of analyses performed and the “blackout” of surveillance networks that suspended flu sampling could have a noteworthy impact on this equation.…”