The Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) on Communicable Diseases

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Background

Globally, communicable diseases continue to constitute a major burden, especially amongst vulnerable groups such as children and women in the developing world. As well as being a major cause of death, infectious diseases represent a heavy financial burden. The Global Burden of Disease study 2019, estimated that communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases were responsible for 10.2 million mortalities and 669 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Recently, COVID-19 infection has joined the predominant communicable diseases that include; respiratory infections (influenza, tuberculosis), malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), diarrheal diseases and neglected tropical diseases. The global impact of these communicable diseases has increasingly been profound, with a greater impact felt during the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to unprecedented challenges to the national health systems all over the world.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) form the first line of defense in reducing the transmission and spread of communicable diseases. The NPIs include primordial measures, such as legislative measures introduced by various governments in line with the International Health Regulations, primary preventive measures and secondary preventive measures aimed at restricting the spread of a disease transmitted from one person to another. NPIs play an important role in reducing incidence and disabilities, as well as economic costs associated with communicable diseases across the life-course of humans.

There may be challenges of adherence or implementation of NPIs, such as reliable and timely information, availability of sufficient antiviral medicines and vaccines aimed to prevent the spread or related complications of the disease and subsequent reduction of morbidity and mortality.

The aim of this Research Topic is to highlight the major strategies of NPIs across the continuum of care using a Public Health approach, with a view to provide lessons and challenges during the implementation process as well as provide evidence to support policy formulation. The challenges experienced during the recent pandemic have raised the debate on the effectiveness and rationale of NPIs. There are questions ranging from generation of reliable information, the policy driving the dissemination of the information to the public, access, and availability of information communication technologies to development and equitable share of vaccines, including their acceptability. Sharing of experiences from across the globe will help to develop appropriate public health measure to combat such problems in the future.

In this Research Topic, we target manuscripts that address issues related to the following themes:

• Assessment of NPIs deployed in the past and during the COVID-19 pandemic - their effectiveness, scalability, sustainability, challenges, cost-effectiveness, and lessons learnt;

• Strategies for making substantive additions to increasing evidence that NPIs are a powerful public health tool;

• The psychosocial effects, especially increasing mental illness and gender-based violence due to prolonged NPIs implemented in COVID 19, Ebola, Influenza, and yellow fever;

• The interruption or delay of access to health care, with implications for the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases;

• The elements of the NPI portfolio during the non-pandemic periods and their relationship to reduction of the risks for future outbreaks and pandemics;

• The impact of NPIs to reduce communicable diseases morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC);

• Leveraging time-limited non-pharmaceutical responses to address COVID-19 and infectious disease outbreaks;

• Comprehensive public health evaluation of lockdown as a non-pharmaceutical intervention on COVID-19 spread;

• Public perceptions of non-pharmaceutical interventions: masking and hand hygiene;

• Impact of being homebound and telecommuting during pandemics.

Keywords: Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention (NPI), Communicable Diseases, Pandemic, Outbreak, COVID-19, Influenza

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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