China scientists link Covid-19 measures to fall in other infections
- Researchers in Guangdong province have identified a dramatic reduction in other infectious diseases during the pandemic
- Cases of dengue, hand-foot-and-mouth disease and flu fell by more than half, with children the biggest beneficiaries
Nearly 1 million infections of diseases such as dengue, hand-foot-and-mouth disease and influenza may have been averted in Guangdong, southern China, last year because of “aggressive” tactics to curb the spread of Covid-19, according to scientists from the province’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Jinan University.
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The 514,341 infections reported in Guangdong’s emergency period last year were 65 per cent lower than the researchers’ predictions, they wrote in a paper published this month by the Western Pacific edition of The Lancet Regional Health.
The reported infections were also around half the number recorded on average in the previous five years, with the steepest reductions found in children, they said.
“Our study suggests that some [intervention measures], such as border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, community management, social distancing, face mask usage, and personal hygiene encouragement, would be very effective measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the future,” the researchers wrote.
That would be especially for respiratory infections like influenza, vector-borne diseases like dengue, and intestinal illnesses, like hand-foot-and-mouth disease, they said.