Surveillance in hospitalized children with infectious diseases in Japan: Pre- and post-coronavirus disease 2019

Abstract

Introduction The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spread worldwide, and the various infection control measures have a significant influence on the spread of many infectious diseases. However, there have been no multicenter studies on how the number of hospitalized children with various infectious diseases changed before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan. Methods We conducted a multicenter, prospective survey for hospitalized pediatric patients in 18 hospitals in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan, from July 2019 to February 2021. We defined July 2019 to February 2020 as pre-COVID-19, and July 2020 to February 2021 as post-COVID-19. We surveyed various infectious diseases by sex and age. Results In total, 5,300 patients were hospitalized during the study period. The number of patients decreased from 4,266 in the pre-COVID-19 period to 701 (16.4%) post-COVID-19. Patients with influenza and RSV decreased from 308 and 795 pre-COVID-19 to zero and three (0.4%) post-COVID-19. However, patients with adenovirus (respiratory infection) only decreased to 60.9% (46 to 28) of pre-COVID levels. Patients with rotavirus, norovirus, and adenovirus gastroenteritis decreased markedly post-COVID-19 to 2.6% (38 to 1), 27.8% (97 to 27) and 13.5% (37 to 5). The number of patients with UTIs was similar across the two periods (109 and 90). KD patients decreased to 31.7% (161 to 51) post-COVID-19. Conclusions We suggest that current infection control measures for COVID-19 such as wearing masks, washing hands, and disinfecting hands with alcohol are effective against various infectious diseases. However, these effects vary by disease.

Different Circulation Pattern of Multiple Respiratory Viruses in Southern China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This finding is similar to an earlier study in 2009-2014 in Southern China where influenza, RSV and ADV were found to be the most common respiratory viruses (Zhang et al, 2014;Liao et al, 2015). Most of our samples were collected from outpatients and hence better reflected respiratory virus activity in the community, when compared to studies which focused on hospitalized patients and may be affected by revised admission criteria as part of the pandemic response (Fukuda et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021). In early 2020 when the most stringent control measures against COVID-19 were implemented, influenza viruses among children and adults were suppressed to a historically low level in Guangzhou as well as in many parts of the world (Olsen et al, 2020;Zipfel et al, 2021).…”

Norovirus: Facts and Reflections from Past, Present, and Future

“…In most countries with active respiratory virus surveillance, the "traditional" autumn-winter epidemic surge of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and other respiratory viruses was completely blunted [154]. For gastrointestinal viruses, epidemiological surveillance is in generally incomplete; nevertheless, a similar phenomenon was observed, particularly for NoV [155][156][157][158][159][160]. Several hypotheses can be generated to explain this significant decrease, including (i) school closures, leading to massive reductions in gatherings of children and children with adults; (ii) prolonged and intense quarantines; (iii) massive increases in hand hygiene procedures; (iv) global masking; (v) reduction in enteric pathogen testing capacity; and (vi) possible secondary effect of SARS-CoV2 infection (which can replicate on the gastrointestinal epithelium) on the predisposition to other enteric viruses, e.g., altering the gut microbiota composition or inducing an antiviral IFN response [157,160].…”

Return of Norovirus and Rotavirus Activity in Winter 2020‒21 in City with Strict COVID-19 Control Strategy, China

“…The unfolding novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis in the modern history of humankind. One collateral consequence of this pandemic is the concomitant rapid decrease in the incidence of viral gastroenteritis in the first year of the pandemic, as observed in many countries, such as China ( 1 ), the United States ( 2 ), England ( 3 ), Germany ( 4 ), Japan ( 5 ), and Australia ( 6 ). The most likely explanations were reduced testing capacity that led to underreporting and wide implementation of nonspecific nonpharmaceutical interventions for COVID-19, such as frequent handwashing and physical distancing, that reduced human-to-human transmission of different viruses.…”