The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic on notifiable infectious diseases in Taiwan: A database analysis

INTRODUCTION: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs) in Taiwan remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The number of cases of NID (n = 42) between January and September 2019 and 2020 were obtained from the open database from Taiwan Centers for Disease Control. RESULTS: The number of NID cases was 21,895 between January and September 2020, which was lower than the number of cases during the same period in 2019 (n = 24,469), with a decline in incidence from 102.9 to 91.7 per 100,000 people in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Fourteen airborne/droplet, 11 fecal-oral, seven vector-borne, and four direct-contact transmitted NID had an overall reduction of 2700 (−28.1%), 156 (−23.0%), 557 (−54.8%), and 73 (−45.9%) cases, respectively, from 2019 to 2020. Similar trends were observed for the changes in incidence, which were 11.5 (−28.4%), 6.7 (−23.4%), 2.4 (−55.0%), and 0.3 (−46.2%) per 100,000 people for airborne/droplet, fecal-oral, vector-borne, and direct-contact transmitted NID, respectively. In addition, all the 38 imported NID showed a reduction of 632 (−73.5%) cases from 2019 to 2020. In contrast, 4 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) showed an increase of 903 (+7.2%) cases from 2019 to 2020, which was attributed to the increase in gonorrhea (from 3220 to 5028). The overall incidence of STDs increased from 52.5 to 56.0 per 100,000 people, with a percentage change of +6.7%. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated a collateral benefit of COVID-19 prevention measures for various infectious diseases, except STDs, in Taiwan, during the COVID-19 epidemic.