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Changes in temporal properties for epidemics of notifiable infectious diseases in China during the COVID-19 epidemic: population-based surveillance study
Xixi Zhao;
Meijia Li;
Naem Haihambo;
Jianhua Jin;
Yimeng Zeng;
Jinyi Qiu;
Mingrou Guo;
Yuyao Zhu;
Zhirui Li;
Jiaxin Liu;
Jiayi Teng;
Sixiao Li;
Yanan Zhao;
Yanxiang Cao;
Xuemei Wang;
Yaqiong Li;
Michel Gao;
Xiaoyang Feng;
Chuanliang Han
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 epidemics first broke out in China in 2020 and the Chinese government immediately carried out a strong and effective control of the epidemics. These prevention policies could reduce the incidence of several infectious diseases.
Objective:
However, the mechanism behind this reduction is still unclear. Hence, in this study, we aimed to study the influence of the COVID-19 prevention policy on epidemic of other diseases (mainly class B infectious diseases) in China.
Methods:
The time-series data for 23 notifiable infectious diseases was collected from 2017 to 2021 using public datasets from the National Health Commission of China. Several indices (peak and trough amplitude, infection selectivity, preferred time to outbreak, oscillatory strength) of each infectious disease were calculated before and after COVID-19 outbreak.
Results:
We found that the prevention and control policy for COVID-19 had a strong significant positive effect on the epidemic of other infectious diseases. A clear event-related trough (ERT) could be seen after the outbreak of COVID-19 under the strict control policy and its decreasing amplitude is related to the infection selectivity and preferred season of the disease before COVID-19 epidemics. We also calculated the oscillatory strength before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and found that it is significantly stronger before the COVID-19 outbreak, and it does not correlate to the trough amplitude.
Conclusions:
Our results, directly demonstrated that prevention policy on COVID-19 has immediate additional benefits to control most other class B infectious diseases and several factors (infection selectivity, preferred outbreak time) could affect this benefit. This study provides guidance on implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions to control a wider range of infectious diseases.
Citation
Please cite as:
Zhao X, Li M, Haihambo N, Jin J, Zeng Y, Qiu J, Guo M, Zhu Y, Li Z, Liu J, Teng J, Li S, Zhao Y, Cao Y, Wang X, Li Y, Gao M, Feng X, Han C
Changes in Temporal Properties of Notifiable Infectious Disease Epidemics in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Population-Based Surveillance Study