Public Health Interventions for the COVID-19 Pandemic Reduce Respiratory Tract Infection-Related Visits at Pediatric Emergency Departments in Taiwan

Autor: Chien-Fu Lin, Ying-Hsien Huang, Chi-Yung Cheng, Kuan-Han Wu, Kuo-Shu Tang, I-Min Chiu
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Adolescent
respiratory tract infection
Taiwan
Subgroup analysis
handwashing
public health interventions
law.invention
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
law
Pandemic
medicine
wearing masks
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Child
Pandemics
Respiratory Tract Infections
Original Research
Asthma
0303 health sciences
Respiratory tract infections
030306 microbiology
Transmission (medicine)
business.industry
SARS-CoV-2
Risk of infection
lcsh:Public aspects of medicine
Public Health
Environmental and Occupational Health
Infant
Newborn
social distancing
Infant
COVID-19
lcsh:RA1-1270
pediatric emergency department
medicine.disease
Hospitals
Pediatric
Intensive care unit
medicine.anatomical_structure
Child
Preschool
Emergency medicine
Female
Public Health
business
Emergency Service
Hospital
Respiratory tract
Zdroj: Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 8 (2020)
Frontiers in Public Health
ISSN: 2296-2565
Popis: Background and objective: Public health interventions such as social distancing, wearing surgical or N95 masks, and handwashing are effective in significantly reducing the risk of infection. The purpose of this article is to analyze the effect of public health interventions on respiratory tract infection-related visits to pediatric emergency departments during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan.Method: Pediatric emergency department visits between January 1 2020 and April 30 2020 were included for trend analysis and compared to the same period during the past 3 years. The datasets were retrieved from Taiwan National Infectious Disease Statistics System and Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Respiratory tract infections with other diagnoses categories, including fever, asthma, and urinary tract infections, were included for subgroup analysis.Result: A significant decrease of more than 50% in respiratory tract infection-related visits was found from February to April 2020 in the national database. With regard to diagnosis category, the proportion of respiratory tract infections in Kaohsiung Chang Gung Hospital also became significantly lower in 2020 during the months of March (43.4 vs. 37.4%, p = 0.024) and April (40.1 vs. 32.2%, p < 0.001). On the other hand, the proportion of urinary tract infections was significantly higher in 2020 during March (3.7 vs. 5.2%, p = 0.033) and April (3.9 vs. 6.5%, p < 0.001), and that of asthma was also higher in April (1.6 vs. 2.6%, p = 0.025). Furthermore, the intensive care unit admission rate was relatively higher in 2020 from February, with significant differences noted in March (1.3 vs. 2.8%, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Due to public health interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic, the transmission of not only COVID-19 but also other air droplet transmitted diseases in children may have been effectively prevented.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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