Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, KoreaUniversity Guro Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Center for Clinical Epidemiology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Yonsei Med J. 2021 Oct;62(10):954-957. doi: 10.3349/ymj.2021.62.10.954.
Nonpharmaceutical interventions (e.g., social distancing) are recommended to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses. However, few epidemiological studies have assessed whether social distancing in actual settings reduces the disease burden of severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs) in the general population. Accordingly, we aimed to assess associations between nationwide social distancing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and non-COVID-19 SARIs. We collected data on SARI epidemiologic characteristics recorded from January 2018 through December 2020 from the nationwide sentinel SARI surveillance data maintained by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The number of SARIs per 1000 hospitalized patients decreased significantly to 18.61, 18.15, and 6.25 in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (<0.001), respectively, during the surveillance period of 3 years. The number of intensive care unit admissions associated with SARIs per 1000 hospitalized patients was 0.83, 0.69, and 0.54 in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (<0.001), respectively, and the number of SARI-associated mortalities per 1000 patients was 0.42, 0.29, and 0.27 in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (<0.001), respectively. Moreover, SARIs had two peak seasons in 2 years of the surveillance period (2018 and 2019). However, seasonality was not observed since social distancing was initiated. Our sentinel surveillance data demonstrated a remarkable reduction in SARI disease burden and a change in seasonality following the implementation of nationwide social distancing. Accordingly, we suggest that social distancing could be effective in forthcoming seasonal epidemics of non-COVID19 origin, although the impact thereof on other aspects of society needs to be carefully considered.
非药物干预措施（例如，社交距离）被推荐用于预防呼吸道病毒的传播。然而，很少有流行病学研究评估实际环境中的社交距离是否会降低普通人群中严重急性呼吸道感染（SARI）的疾病负担。因此，我们旨在评估 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）期间全国范围的社会隔离与非 COVID-19 SARI 之间的关联。我们从韩国疾病控制与预防机构维护的全国性哨点 SARI 监测数据中收集了 2018 年 1 月至 2020 年 12 月 SARI 流行病学特征的记录数据。在 3 年的监测期间，每 1000 名住院患者中 SARI 的数量分别显著下降至 2018 年的 18.61、2019 年的 18.15 和 2020 年的 6.25（<0.001）。每 1000 名住院患者中与 SARI 相关的重症监护病房入院人数分别为 2018 年的 0.83、2019 年的 0.69 和 2020 年的 0.54（<0.001），每 1000 名患者中与 SARI 相关的死亡人数分别为 2018 年的 0.42、2019 年的 0.29 和 2020 年的 0.27（<0.001）。此外，在监测期间的 2 年中，SARI 有两个高峰期（2018 年和 2019 年）。然而，自开始实施社会隔离以来，季节性并未出现。我们的哨点监测数据表明，在实施全国范围的社会隔离后，SARI 疾病负担显著降低，季节性发生变化。因此，我们建议，尽管需要仔细考虑其对社会其他方面的影响，但社会隔离可能对非 COVID-19 来源的季节性流行有效。
