Suchergebnisse

We encounter many natural disasters in Japan and various infectious diseases could occur during and after natural disasters. Two recent major natural disasters, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2011 and 2016, respectively, killed tremendous numbers of people and many were affected with infectious diseases in evacuation centers as well as shelters for long period. Infection control teams of medical facilities inside or outside of affected areas were dispatched, supported evacuees, and made great contributions to: (i) control epidemic infectious diseases such as influenza and norovirus infection, (ii) educate and encourage people, (iii) improve environments. According to the experiences and evidence accumulated from these two disasters, it is apparent that infection control activities will definitely reduce infection during and after disasters. However, unlike the Disaster Medical Assistance Team and Japan Medical Association Team, there is no organization specialized for infection control in disaster‐affected areas. A disaster infection control team should be established by leads of either of government and/or societies related to infectious diseases and infection control.

Abstract
The effectiveness of population-wide compliance to personal precautions (mask-wearing and hand hygiene) in preventing community-acquired pneumonia has been unknown. In Japan, different types of nonpharmaceutical interventions from personal precautions to containment and closure policies (CACPs, e.g. stay-at-home requests) were sequentially introduced from late January to April 2020, allowing for separate analysis of the effects of personal precautions from other more stringent interventions. We quantified the reduction in community-acquired pneumonia hospitalizations and deaths and assessed if it coincided with the timing of increased public awareness of personal precautions before CACPs were implemented. A quasi-experimental interrupted time-series design was applied to non–COVID-19 pneumonia hospitalization and 30-day death data from April 2015 to August 2020 across Japan to identify any trend changes between February and April 2020. We also performed a comparative analysis of pyelonephritis and biliary tract infections to account for possible changes in the baseline medical attendance. These trend changes were then compared with multiple indicators of public awareness and behaviors related to personal precautions, including keyword usage in mass media coverage and sales of masks and hand hygiene products. Hospitalizations and 30-day deaths from non–COVID-19 pneumonia dropped by 24.3% (95% CI 14.8–32.8) and 16.1% (5.5–25.5), respectively, in February 2020, before the implementation of CACPs, whereas pyelonephritis and biliary tract infections did not suggest a detectable change. These changes coincided with increases in indicators related to personal precautions rather than those related to contact behavior changes. Community-acquired pneumonia could be reduced by population-wide compliance to moderate precautionary measures.