Impact of Preventive Measures Against Covid-19 on the Prevalence of Infectious Diseases Among the Population of The Republic ofKazakhstan

Abstract

Aim: To study the impact of COVID-19 preventive measures on airborne and fecal-oral infectious diseases in Kazakhstan

Materials and Research Methods: We used comparative data from the Study of Sanitary and Epidemiological Control of Infectious Morbidity in the Population of the Kazakhstan for 2019-2020. In this case, there are infectious diseases transmitted mainly by airborne droplets among the entire population (children, adolescents and adults) and diseases with fecal-oral transmission.

Results: The total number of cases detected was 1,239,635. Thus, the percentage change in the total number of cases from 2019 to 2020 was - (+) 5.6%. In 2019, 596,216 cases of infectious diseases transmitted by airborne droplets were detected, and in 2020 - 631,407, i.e. 35,191 more were revealed (+5.9%). ARVI and influenza account for the largest proportion in this group, and the incidence has increased in these groups. At the same time, exacerbations of diseases transmitted by the fecal-oral route: from 2019 to 2020, diseases occurred in 1,716 (-38.8%) cases.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated a useful effective COVID-19 prevention measure for several other infectious diseases in Kazakhstan during the pandemic. However, special attention should be paid to the increase in the incidence of ARVI and influenza in Kazakhstan. Possible exceptions, according to the authors, are ignoring the high incidence of influenza and ARVI in 2020 compared to 2019, since special attention was focused on COVID-19. The next hypothesis is the impact of COVID-19 on influenza immunization in the country - restrictive measures have reduced the number of influenza vaccinated.