Dengue and leptospirosis infection during the coronavirus 2019 outbreak in Sri Lanka

M A Niriella; D S Ediriweera; A P De Silva; B H R Premarathna; S Jayasinghe; H J de Silva

doi:10.1093/trstmh/trab058

Dengue and leptospirosis infection during the coronavirus 2019 outbreak in Sri Lanka

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Sep 3;115(9):944-946. doi: 10.1093/trstmh/trab058.

Authors

M A Niriella¹, D S Ediriweera¹, A P De Silva¹, B H R Premarathna¹, S Jayasinghe², H J de Silva¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, PO Box 6, Ragama 11010, Sri Lanka.
² Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, 25 Kynsey Rd, Colombo 00800, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

A significant decrease in dengue fever cases and a contrasting increase in leptospirosis cases were reported for the second quarter of 2020 compared with 2019 in Sri Lanka. In the absence of significant environmental and weather-related differences to account for these changes in incidence, we investigated the possibility that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health, social behaviour and the restrictions imposed during the lockdown influenced the fluctuations in dengue and leptospirosis infections.

Keywords: COVID-19; dengue fever; leptospirosis; pandemic; tropical infections.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Communicable Disease Control
Dengue* / epidemiology
Disease Outbreaks
Humans
Leptospirosis* / epidemiology
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Sri Lanka / epidemiology