Advertisement
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Covid-19 prevention measures may have contributed to a dramatic fall in other infectious diseases, according to a group of researchers from Guangdong province. Photo: AP

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
Stringent measures meant to control Covid-19 may have dramatically reduced the incidence of other infectious diseases in China’s most populous province, new research has found.

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.

06:05

As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?

As more countries ditch ‘zero-Covid’ policy, why is China opting to ‘wait and see’?

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.

However, the scientists acknowledged that reported numbers could have been impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak, with people unwilling to seek medical help due to concerns about the virus, or medical institutions not operating normally.

China mandates indoor and outdoor masks in updated Covid-19 rules

The findings reflect other reports and anecdotal evidence from around the world of reduced spread of infectious diseases, such as influenza, as an unintended consequence of last year’s Covid-19 control measures.

Health experts across the northern hemisphere have now expressed concerns about a rebound of influenza, as measures like masking and social distancing have largely been relaxed and winter flu season approaches.

China’s National Health Commission on Friday urged local health authorities to step up measures to control and prevent flu outbreaks, in particular to cut down the risk of an “overlapping epidemic” with Covid-19.

China has seen several sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks in recent weeks, while the health authority reported higher levels of influenza since March, compared with the same period last year, in several regions, with a “significant” uptick in cases since September in southern provinces.

China traces path of 8 infected tourists to contain new outbreak

The Guangdong researchers found a nearly 81 per cent reduction in influenza in 2020 relative to the previous five years’ average for their province of 126 million. Other diseases that saw the greatest reductions were dengue fever, down 98 per cent, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, down 84 per cent, scarlet fever, down 80 per cent, and pertussis, down 64 per cent.

There were smaller or no reductions in blood-borne and sexually transmitted diseases.

Epidemiologist Benjamin Cowling, a University of Hong Kong professor who was not involved in the study, said the Guangdong findings added to similar research.

“There have been a lot of reports of other infections disappearing due to Covid interventions, around the world, but this is quite comprehensive – showing impact on many different types of infections,” he said, adding that reporting could also vary with changes in health care seeking behaviours and diagnostic practices.

Other countries are giving up ‘Covid zero’. China wants to wait and see

Figures in the Guangdong study were based on the 39 kinds of “notifiable infectious diseases” with a standardised reporting procedure. The research measured reductions during most of the year when emergency protocols were in place in the province.

Overall in China, reports of these 39 diseases declined around 25 per cent from the previous year, according to the researchers. They suggested their province may have seen a greater reduction than the national average due to more stringent disease control measures.

As the province with the highest number of cases outside Hubei – epicentre of China’s initial outbreak – Guangdong swiftly enacted control measures like border controls, mandatory quarantines for close contacts, crowd restrictions, and school closures, and maintained protocols at different levels throughout the year.

Children aged 14 and younger were the greatest beneficiaries of the reductions in disease spread in Guangdong, according to the study. They saw a 73 per cent reduction in infectious diseases compared with the previous five years’ average, while adults only saw 17.5 per cent.

Overseas Covid-19 relaxations pose new challenges for China

School closures and more attention to hygiene among schoolchildren were likely to account for decreased illnesses that spread readily between kids, like hand-foot-and-mouth disease, influenza, mumps, and scarlet fever, the researchers said.

Researchers linked the decrease in insect-borne disease to strict border restrictions, which reduced international flights arriving in Guangdong by more than 80 per cent, and subsequent quarantine of travellers. Dengue infections fell to just 50 cases from over 2,000 on average.

The researchers also evaluated different levels of disease control, and found that even during the most lax level – which includes travel and case-based interventions – there were still significant benefits for reducing and controlling infectious diseases.

Overall, the study “highlights the importance” of these interventions against infectious diseases, and suggests that some should remain priorities for future control of respiratory, insect-borne, and intestinal infectious diseases, they said.

3