The SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Its Impact on the Incidence of Parasitic Gastrointestinal Illnesses in Pediatric and Adult Populations

Abstract

Introduction/Objective The initial months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic entailed unprecedented changes to the way lives are lived worldwide, resulting in new means of social and economic engagement. For instance, stay-at-home orders led to youths (and staff) attending school virtually. Likewise, entire sectors of the workforce were blocked from their offices and jobs went online. The aim of these public health policies was to reduce the transmission of SARS- CoV-2; however, less attention has been given to how these policies have impacted the spread of other communicable illnesses. As such, we hypothesized that stay-at-home orders, in conjunction with increased hygiene surveillance and other public health guidelines, altered the transmission cycles of communicable gastrointestinal parasites. We anticipated that when plotted against time, a decrease in positive cases would occur concomitantly with known periods of lockdown; similarly, an increase in positive cases would follow efforts to re-open society. Methods/Case Report To probe this hypothesis, the laboratory information system was queried for positive and negative cases of Giardia and Cryptosporidium identified within the Indiana University Health System based on the Surve-Vue Signature™ Crypto/Giardia assay (Fisher Healthcare, Waltham, MA). Results (if a Case Study enter NA) Results were categorized by patient age: 0 to 18-years-old and 19-110-years-old. Initial review of the pediatric data set reflected that pandemic-related public health measures did not meaningfully alter the incidence of positive test results for these two parasites, though notable observations suggested patterns buried more deeply within the data. Conclusion The findings of this study have broad implications regarding the perceived and actual communicability of Giardia and Cryptosporidium (as well as other gastrointestinal parasites) in both normal and pandemic-times.