Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the epidemiology of other communicable diseases in Japan

Abstract

Objectives: To elucidate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the epidemiology of other infectious diseases. Design: We investigated the epidemiology of 36 communicable diseases during 2015-2021 in Japan and compared the number of cases in each disease between the prepandemic (2015-2019) and intrapandemic (2020-2021) periods. Relationships between the incidence of the infectious diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic were also investigated. Results: Of 36 communicable diseases, the number of cases in the 27 diseases (75%) mainly caused by pathogens transmitted by droplet or contact was lower intrapandemic than prepandemic, and the cases of 21 diseases (58%) continued to decrease intrapandemic. The number of cases of six diseases (17%) was higher intrapandemic than prepandemic, and the cases of two diseases (5.6%), Japanese spotted fever and syphilis, continued to increase intrapandemic. Time trend analyses revealed a positive correlation between case numbers of communicable diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the case numbers of hand-foot-and-mouth disease and respiratory syncytial virus infection rebounded in 2021 after decreasing in 2020. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the epidemiology of communicable diseases, suggesting that countermeasures against COVID-19 and lifestyle changes might be involved in these epidemiological changes.

Keywords

• Infection control
• Japan
• Physical distancing
• Quarantine
• SARS-CoV-2
• Transmission of infectious disease