Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on STIs in Greece

Apalla, Zoé; Lallas, Aimilios; Mastraftsi, Styliani; Giannoukos, Anastassios; Noukari, Despoina; Goula, Maria A.; Kalantzi, Polychronia; Zapridou, Maria; Lallas, Konstantinos; Kyrgidis, Athanassios; Lazaridou, Elizabeth; Stratigos, Alexander J.; Sidiropoulos, Theodoros; Nicolaidou, Electra

doi:10.1136/sextrans-2021-054965

Cited by 28 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The STI test counts decreased and test positivity increased during the pandemic period. According to the report from Greece, Cuba and other countries, the epidemiology of STDs has been widely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and presented a dramatically decreased trend[5,[8][9][10]. The same situation could happen in China, in our unpublished data at the STD clinic in Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, we found that patients with STDs interrupted follow-up at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the first visit patients sharply declined.…”

mentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Researches have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced individual's sexual health, sexual behavior, and the diagnosis and treatment process of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), which in turn changed the epidemiological trend of STDs [4][5][6][7]. It reported that except Denmark [8], the incidence or reported cases of STDs in Spain, Greece, Cuba, and the US significantly decreased in 2020 compared with the corresponding period in 2019 [5,[9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Epidemiology of STDs in China: Based on the GM (1,1) Model

Yan

Zhou

2022

Preprint

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Background: It has been reported that COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted on the epidemiological trend of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in many countries. However, relevant researches are limited in China. We aimed to analyze the extent of COVID-19 pandemic impact on STDs in China.Methods: The incidence of HIV infection, syphilis and gonorrhea in China from 2008 to 2020 was collected. But only data of these three STDs from 2013 to 2018 were used to establish the Grey Model (1,1) considering about the impact of policies of China. Then we calculated the predictive incidence of each STD in 2019, 2020 and 2021 by the established Model. And then we estimated the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on the epidemiological changes of STDs by analyzing the difference between the absolute percentage error (APE) of the predictive incidence and actual rate in 2019 and 2020. Results: The incidence of HIV infection and syphilis showed an increasing trend from 2008 to 2019 in China, but that for gonorrhea was fluctuant. Of note, the incidence of these three STDs decreased significantly in 2020 compared with that in 2019. The APE of HIV infection, syphilis and gonorrhea in 2020 (20.54%, 15.45% and 60.88%) were about 7 times, 4 times and 2 times of that in 2019 (2.94%, 4.07% and 30.41%). The incidence of HIV infection, syphilis and gonorrhea would be 5.77/100,000, 39.64/100,000 and 13.19/100,000 in 2021 based on our model.Conclusions: Our analysis revealed that the epidemiological trend of STDs in China was significant influenced by COVID-19 pandemic. The result highlights the critical need for transformative strategies in STDs control in the context of the long-term effects of COVID-19 pandemic in the future.

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confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Epidemiology of STDs in China: Based on the GM (1,1) Model

Yan

Zhou

2022

Preprint

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“…However, the actual case numbers in February 2020 were sharply lower than that of previous years and the predicted case numbers, which showed the significant influence of the COVID-19 epidemic and its control measures. The number of STD cases in other countries also decreased during the lockdown period, such as the gonorrhea cases in London, United Kingdom ( 4 ), syphilis cases in Rome, Italy ( 5 ) and the United States ( 6 ), gonorrhea and syphilis cases in Greece ( 7 ) and Madrid, Spain ( 8 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Epidemic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Under the Influence of COVID-19 in China

Yan

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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Background: Prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are major public health priorities in China, but are influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic. In this study, we aimed to quantitatively explore the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and its control measures on five major STD epidemics in China.Methods: A monthly number of newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, gonorrhea, and syphilis from January 2010 to December 2020 were extracted to establish autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Each month's absolute percentage error (APE) between the actual value and model-predicted value of each STD in 2020 was calculated to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic on the STDs. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to explore the confirmed COVID-19 case numbers and the COVID-19 control measures' correlations with the case numbers and the APEs of five STDs in 2020.Results: The actual number of five STDs in China was more than 50% lower than the predicted number in the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in February. Among them, the actual number of cases of hepatitis C, gonorrhea, and syphilis in February 2020 was more than 100% lower than the predicted number (APE was −102.3, −109.0, and −100.4%, respectively). After the sharply declines of STDs' reported cases in early 2020, the case numbers recovered quickly after March. The epidemic of STDs was negatively associated with the COVID-19 epidemic and its control measures, especially for restrictions on gathering size, close public transport, and stay-at-home requirements (p < 0.05).Conclusion: COVID-19 had a significant but temporary influence on the STD epidemic in China. The effective control of COVID-19 is vital for STD prevention. STD services need to be improved to prevent STDs from becoming a secluded corner in the shadow of COVID-19.

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“…These results differ from those described in some other European countries. 1 The increase in early syphilis cases may reflect non-compliance with social distancing restrictions, as suggested by the marked increase in COVID-19 cases reported in the Czech Republic in the same period. 2…”

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confidence: 96%

Increase of early syphilis cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic

2021

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Increase of early syphilis cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech RepublicThe COVID-19 pandemic reached the Czech Republic in March 2020, leading to three national lockdowns over the following 12 months. We analysed monthly diagnoses of gonorrhoea and syphilis in a large tertiary care centre in Prague during March 2020-February 2021 relative to the monthly average of the previous 4 years (March 2016-February 2020) (figure 1). After an initial slight decrease, there was an increase in confirmed cases of early syphilis in the second half of 2020. These results differ from those described in some other European countries. 1 The increase in early syphilis cases may reflect non-compliance with social distancing restrictions, as suggested by the marked increase in COVID-19 cases reported in the Czech Republic in the same period. 2

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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on STIs in Greece

Cited by 28 publications

References 3 publications

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Epidemiology of STDs in China: Based on the GM (1,1) Model

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Epidemiology of STDs in China: Based on the GM (1,1) Model

The Epidemic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Under the Influence of COVID-19 in China

Increase of early syphilis cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic

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