Center for Virology, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Environmental Health, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
J Clin Virol. 2021 Apr;137:104795. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2021.104795. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
Since the worldwide spread of SARS-CoV-2, different European countries reacted with temporary national lockdowns with the aim to limit the virus transmission in the population. Also Austria started a lockdown of public life in March 2020.
In this study we investigated whether the circulation of different respiratory virus infections in Austria, as assessed by the established respiratory virus surveillance system, is affected by these measures as well and may reflect the success of the lockdown in limiting respiratory virus transmission.
Sentinel data obtained for influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus and rhinovirus cases were analyzed and compared between the season 2019/2020 and the five previous seasons.
We observed a rapid and statistically significant reduction of cumulative cases for all these viruses within short time after the lockdown in March 2020, compared to previous seasons (each p < 0.001). Also, sentinel screening for SARS-CoV-2 infections was performed and a decrease of SARS-CoV-2 was seen after the lockdown. While for the seasonally occurring viruses as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus or human metapneumovirus the lockdown led to the end of the annual epidemics, a re-increase of rhinovirus infections was observed after liberalization of numerous lockdown measures.
Our data provide evidence that occurrence of different respiratory virus infections reflect not only the efficiency of lockdown measures taken against SARS-CoV-2 but it shows also the effects of lockdown releases on the transmission of respiratory viruses.
自 SARS-CoV-2 在全球范围内传播以来，不同的欧洲国家采取了临时的全国封锁措施，旨在限制人群中的病毒传播。奥地利也于 2020 年 3 月开始对公众生活实施封锁。
本研究旨在调查通过既定的呼吸道病毒监测系统评估的奥地利不同呼吸道病毒感染的流行情况是否也受到这些措施的影响，并且可能反映出封锁措施在限制呼吸道病毒传播方面的成功。
对流感病毒、呼吸道合胞病毒、人类偏肺病毒和鼻病毒病例的哨点数据进行了分析，并将 2019/2020 年季节与之前的五个季节进行了比较。
我们观察到，在 2020 年 3 月封锁后短时间内，所有这些病毒的累积病例迅速且具有统计学意义地减少，与前几个季节相比（均 p < 0.001）。此外，还对 SARS-CoV-2 感染进行了哨点筛查，封锁后 SARS-CoV-2 感染人数下降。虽然对于季节性发生的病毒（如流感、呼吸道合胞病毒或人类偏肺病毒），封锁导致了年度流行的结束，但在放宽了众多封锁措施后，鼻病毒感染再次增加。
我们的数据提供了证据表明，不同呼吸道病毒感染的发生不仅反映了针对 SARS-CoV-2 采取的封锁措施的效率，还反映了封锁解除对呼吸道病毒传播的影响。
