Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Department of Public Health, Kaohsiung Medical University, College of Health Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Research Center for Environmental Medicine, Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Med Clin (Barc). 2020 Sep 25;155(6):249-253. doi: 10.1016/j.medcli.2020.05.026. Epub 2020 Jun 5.
Influenza virus infection is associated with a high disease burden. COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become a pandemic outbreak since January 2020. Taiwan has effectively contained COVID-19 community transmission. We aimed to validate whether fighting COVID-19 could help to control other respiratory infections in Taiwan.
We collected week-case data of severe influenza, invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae disease and death toll from pneumonia among 25 calendar weeks of the influenza season for four years (2016-2020), which were reported to Taiwan CDC. Trend and slope differences between years were compared.
A downturn trend of severe influenza, invasive S. pneumoniae disease and the death toll from pneumonia per week in 2019/2020 season and significant trend difference in comparison to previous seasons were noted, especially after initiation of several disease prevention measures to fight potential COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan.
Fighting COVID-19 achieved collateral benefits on significant reductions of severe influenza burden, invasive S. pneumoniae disease activity, and the death toll from pneumonia reported to CDC in Taiwan.
流感病毒感染会导致较高的疾病负担。自 2020 年 1 月以来，由 SARS-CoV-2 引起的 COVID-19 已成为全球性疫情爆发。台湾已有效遏制了 COVID-19 的社区传播。我们旨在验证抗击 COVID-19 是否有助于控制台湾的其他呼吸道感染。
我们收集了台湾疾病预防控制中心报告的四个流感季节（2016-2020 年）中 25 个日历周内严重流感、侵袭性肺炎链球菌病和肺炎死亡人数的周发病数据。比较了各年之间的趋势和斜率差异。
2019/2020 季节每周严重流感、侵袭性肺炎链球菌病和肺炎死亡人数呈下降趋势，与前几个季节相比差异具有统计学意义，尤其是在台湾开始采取几项疾病预防措施以应对潜在的 COVID-19 疫情爆发后。
抗击 COVID-19 对台湾严重流感负担、侵袭性肺炎链球菌病活动以及向疾病预防控制中心报告的肺炎死亡人数的显著减少产生了附带益处。
