Impact of COVID19 on Disease Surveillance and Reporting

Abstract:

Corona Virus Disease (COVID19) pandemic has many consequential impacts to human activity and operations all over the world. Some of these impacts are readily apparent from cutbacks in global air traffic and transport, trade, pollution and air quality resulting from the shutdowns and suspensions of many activities for a prolonged period of time. Some other impacts are perhaps hidden and not so apparent. Here we explore, the hidden impacts of COVID19 induced shutdowns on disease surveillance for some neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) – Dengue and Chikungunya. We use the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) - an internet service to identify unusual health events related to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and toxins affecting humans, animals and plants. We profile reports on Chikungunya and Dengue activity from 1999 to present. We use the number of locations reporting the occurrence of the specific disease as a proxy for disease frequency overtime and establish differences in this metric for the period December – July, the extended period of COVID19 pandemic. Preliminary findings indicate that for Chikungunya there is a triple decrease in the number of locations reporting Chikungunya for the period December 2019-July 2020 compared to the same time period in December 2018-July 2019. We partially attribute this to reduction in surveillance and reporting of this disease globally due shutdowns and shelter in place regulations and shifts in personnel and resources to address the pandemic.