Epidemiologic trends and distributions of imported infectious diseases among travelers to Japan before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2016 to 2021: a descriptive study.

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the trends of imported infectious diseases among travelers to non-endemic countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aimed to describe those among travelers to Japan.

METHODS

This is a descriptive study based on national surveillance data. Imported infectious disease cases were defined as those with a reported overseas source of infection among 15 diseases pre-selected based on the probability and impact of importation. The number of notified cases from April 2016 to March 2021 were described by disease and time of diagnosis. The relative ratio and absolute difference in case counts-both by number and per arrival-were calculated by disease comparing those from the pandemic period (April 2020-March 2021) to the pre-pandemic period (April 2016-March 2020).

RESULTS

A total of 3524 imported infectious disease cases were diagnosed during the study period, including 3439 cases before and 85 cases during the pandemic. The proportionate distribution of diseases changed but notification counts of all 15 diseases decreased during the pandemic. Accounting for arrivals, however, seven diseases showed a two-fold or greater increase, with a notable absolute increase per million arrivals for amebiasis (60.1; 95%CI, 41.5-78.7), malaria (21.7; 10.5-33.0), and typhoid fever (9.3; 1.9-16.8).

CONCLUSION

The epidemiology of imported infectious diseases changed during the pandemic. While the number of imported infectious disease cases decreased, the number of cases per arrivals increased considerably both in relative and absolute terms for several diseases of public health and clinical importance.