Public Health Interventions for COVID-19 Reduce Kawasaki Disease in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a syndrome of unknown cause that results in high fever and coronary vasculitis on the affected children. The incidence of KD increased in Taiwan over the past few decades but seemed to have significantly decreased in 2020, when the Taiwanese government executed public health interventions for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or (coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) pandemic, leading to an effective reduction of the risk of airway infections in children. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether those public health interventions reduce the incidence of KD in 2020.Methods: Patients with KD who visited Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH) between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 were included for trend analysis. This is a retrospective case series study conducted at the CGMH, which consists of a network of 7 hospital branches equipped with more than 10,000 beds in different area of Taiwan.Results: Compared with the 2018 and 2019 databases, the incidence of KD decreased significantly by 30% and 31%, respectively (p Conclusion: As public health interventions were carried out for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the incidence of KD was significantly reduced. Is KD a preventable disease?Funding Statement: This study received funding from the following grants: MOST 108-2314-B-182 -037 -MY3 from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan and 8E0212, CMRPG8L0021 and CORPG8L0321 from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan. Although these institutes provided financial support, they had no influence on the way in which we collected, analyzed, or interpreted the data or wrote this manuscript.Declaration of Interests: All the authors hereby declare to have no financial interests todisclose with regard to this article.Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Chang Gung Medical Foundation (IRB number: 201801163B0 and 20210084B0).