COVID-19 prevention measures reduce dengue spread in Yunnan Province, China, but do not reduce established outbreak

Emerg Microbes Infect. 2022 Dec;11(1):240-249. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2021.2022438.

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic and measures against it provided a unique opportunity to understand the transmission of other infectious diseases and to evaluate the efficacy of COVID-19 prevention measures on them. Here we show a dengue epidemic in Yunnan, China, during the pandemic of COVID-19 was dramatically reduced compared to non-pandemic years and, importantly, spread was confined to only one city, Ruili. Three key features characterized this dengue outbreak: (i) the urban-to-suburban spread was efficiently blocked; (ii) the scale of epidemic in urban region was less affected; (iii) co-circulation of multiple strains was attenuated. These results suggested that countermeasures taken during COVID-19 pandemic are efficient to prevent dengue transmission between cities and from urban to suburban, as well to reduce the co-circulation of multiple serotypes or genotypes. Nevertheless, as revealed by the spatial analysis, once the dengue outbreak was established, its distribution was very stable and resistant to measures against COVID-19, implying the possibility to develop a precise prediction method.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology
  • COVID-19 / prevention & control
  • China / epidemiology
  • Chlorocebus aethiops
  • Communicable Disease Control / methods*
  • Dengue / epidemiology*
  • Dengue / prevention & control*
  • Dengue / transmission*
  • Dengue Virus*
  • Disease Outbreaks / prevention & control
  • Genotype
  • Humans
  • Pandemics / prevention & control
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Viral
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Serogroup
  • Spatial Analysis
  • Vero Cells

Substances

  • RNA, Viral

Grants and funding

This funding was municipally awarded by local government of Beijing, not national. Therefore, it might be not available for matching in Open Funder Registry. The details was rechecked and correct.