Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Implemented to Control the COVID-19 Were Associated With Reduction of Influenza Incidence.

Qing-Mei Huang,Xi-Ru Zhang,Zhi-Hao Li,Dan Liu,Chen Mao,Pei-Dong Zhang,Pei-Liang Chen,Fen Liang,Dong Shen,Xingfen Yang,Wen-Fang Zhong,Wei-Qi Song,Bi-Li Ye,Qu Liu

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.773271

Abstract

BackgroundNon-pharmaceutical interventions were implemented in most countries to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. We aimed to describe the incidence of influenza in four countries in the 2019–2020 season and examined the effect of these non-pharmaceutical interventions on the incidence of influenza.MethodsWe used the network surveillance data from 2015 to 2020 to estimate the percentage increase in influenza cases to explore the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to control the COVID-19 on the incidence of influenza in China, the United States, Japan, and Singapore.ResultsWe found that the incidence of influenza has been almost zero and reached a persistent near-zero level for a continuous period of six months since epidemiologic week 14 of 2020 in the four countries. Influenza incidence decreased by 77.71% and 60.50% in the early days of COVID-19 in the 2019–2020 season compared to the same period in preceding years in Japan and Singapore, respectively. Furthermore, influenza incidence decreased by 60.50–99.48% during the period of compulsory interventions in the 2019–2020 season compared to the same period in preceding years in the four countries.ConclusionThese findings suggest that the application of non-pharmaceutical interventions, even everyday preventive action, was associated with a reduction of influenza incidence, which highlights that more traditional public health interventions need to be reasserted and universalized to reduce influenza incidence.

Highlights

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019, and spread quickly across the world after January 2020 [1]
The weekly number of influenza-like illness (ILI) and the weekly proportion of specimens positive for influenza in the United States were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) global influenza epidemiological data sharing platform (FluID)
The influenza epidemic peaked in epidemiologic December 2020 in China, while the influenza epidemic reached its double peak in epidemiologic week 52 of 2019 and epidemiologic week 6 of 2020 in the United States

Summary

Introduction

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China on 31 December 2019, and spread quickly across the world after January 2020 [1]. Faced with a devastating pandemic, many nations and regions subsequently implemented incremental public health interventions to mitigate COVID-19 transmission, which comprised travel restrictions, border closures, respiratory etiquette, hand hygiene, disinfection, wearing a face mask, closing school, and public gathering cancellations [1, 3,4,5,6]. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual incidence of respiratory illness was mostly comprised of influenza. One question emerges: whether non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to control the spread of COVID-19 were associated with the reduced incidence of influenza. Non-pharmaceutical interventions were implemented in most countries to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. We aimed to describe the incidence of influenza in four countries in the 2019–2020 season and examined the effect of these non-pharmaceutical interventions on the incidence of influenza

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Discussion

Conclusion