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Impact of COVID-19 Health Policies on Other Infectious Diseases

Call for Papers

Earth with a mask

During the last year, world governments have implemented a variety of health policies aimed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and gain time until vaccines and specific antiviral treatments become available. Stringent lockdowns, travel bans, physical distancing, mask usage, massive decentralized testing, and the requirement of special hygiene measures for the general population are among these interventions. Even with these policies in play, health systems overload and the economic burden caused by the pandemic have brought reduced and unequal access to health care worldwide.


In support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3, Good Health and Well-being, BMC Infectious Diseases is delighted to announce the release of Impact of COVID-19 Health Policies on Other Infectious Diseases. This collection aims to bring together original research articles and systematic reviews characterizing the benefits and detriments of COVID-19 pandemic health policies on prevention, transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of the whole spectrum of infectious diseases. Unsolicited narrative reviews will not be considered, as per the journal's policies.

­‍‍SDG3 eight hands making a circle together




Submission guidelines

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the submission guidelines for BMC Infectious Diseases. Please ensure you highlight in your cover letter that you are submitting to a collection and select the collection in the submission questionnaire in Editorial Manager. Please make sure you submit in Editorial Manager and not our new editorial submission system. 

Data sets and descriptions relevant to the collection will be considered in BMC Research Notes as Data Notes. You can find out more about this article type here. This type of content will be published in BMC Research Notes and included in the final collection.

­‍‍Accepted manuscripts will be added to the collection as and when they are published. 

Please email any pre-submission inquiries, request additional information, or if you’d like to get involved by emailing.

Submission from 1st July 2021 to June 30th, 2022.

Meet the Guest Editors

Professor Carlo Torti. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences. University “Magna Graecia”, Italy

Dr. Torti is New Content ItemProfessor of Infectious Diseases at the University “Magna Graecia” (Italy) and Director of the Unit of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (COVID-19 Centre) at “Mater Domini” Teaching Hospital (Catanzaro, Italy). He is the author of more than 250 papers with a focus on diagnosis and treatment of viral infections. He is one of the Senior Editors for BMC Infectious Diseases.


Professor Elijah Paintsil.  Department of Pediatrics. Yale School of Medicine. USA

Dr. PaiNew Content Itemntsil is Professor of Pediatrics, of Pharmacology, of Epidemiology and of Management at Yale University and Chief of the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases & Global Health, Department of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and the Program Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program and co-Director of the Yale Partnerships for Global Health. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric Research, and Academic Pediatric Society and a consultant to Africa CDC. His research interests are: Effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on mitochondrial biology and pediatric HIV treatment outcomes in resource-limited settings. Dr. Paintsil has been an Editorial Board Member for BMC Infectious Diseases since 2015.

Professor Peter Subirakwenda Nyasulu. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Stellenbosch University, South Africa

DrNew Content Item. Nyasulu, PhD MScMed MACE, is Professor of Epidemiology at Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is a Member of the American College of Epidemiology and an Honorary Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Prof Suwirakwenda Nyasulu has extensive experience in epidemiological and clinical research in infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, pneumococcal diseases among others. He is also actively involved in the COVID-19 research response initiative of the Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

  1. Excessive use of antibiotics has been reported during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We evaluated trends in antibiotic use and culture positive Gram-negative (GN)/Gram-positive (GP) pathogens in US hospitalized pati...

    Authors: Laura A. Puzniak, Karri A. Bauer, Kalvin C. Yu, Janet A. Watts, ChinEn Ai and Vikas Gupta
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2023 23:117
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Restrictions to curb the first wave of COVID-19 in India resulted in a decline in facility-based HIV testing rates, likely contributing to increased HIV transmission and disease progression. The programmatic a...

    Authors: Rose Pollard, Ajay Enugu, Salin Sriudomporn, Jade Bell, Subash Chandra Ghosh, Visvanathan Arumugam, Parthasarathy Mugundu, Aditya Singh, Allison M. McFall, Shruti H. Mehta, Bryan N. Patenaude and Sunil S. Solomon
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:918
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:955

  3. To gain insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures on the HIV epidemic and services, this study aims to describe HIV trends in 2020 and compare them with previous years.

    Authors: Dominique Van Beckhoven, Ben Serrien, Marion Montourcy, Chris Verhofstede, Dorien Van den Bossche, Agnes Libois, Deborah De Geyter, Thierry Martin, Sandra Van den Eynde, Bea Vuylsteke, Gilles Darcis, Karlijn van Halem, Eric Florence and Jessika Deblonde
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:901
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Persons in Pakistan have suffered from various infectious diseases over the years, each impacted by various factors including climate change, seasonality, geopolitics, and resource availability. The COVID-19 p...

    Authors: Bayan Missaghi, Muhammad Wasif Malik, Waseem Shaukat, Muazam Abbas Ranjha, Aamer Ikram and Herman W. Barkema
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:887
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of infection prevention and control. We found that the incidence of nosocomial infection in neurosurgery has changed. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of “coro...

    Authors: Shuang-Jun Pan, Yong Hou, Yu-Pei Yang, Geng-Ge Wang, Xiao-Yan Chen, Wei-Yang Qian, Tao-Hsin Tung and Xiao-Ming Hu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:836
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. The COVID-19 pandemic was met with strict containment measures. We hypothesized that societal infection control measures would impact the number of hospital admissions for respiratory tract infections, as well...

    Authors: Sondre Serigstad, Dagfinn L. Markussen, Christian Ritz, Marit H. Ebbesen, Siri T. Knoop, Øyvind Kommedal, Lars Heggelund, Elling Ulvestad, Rune O. Bjørneklett and Harleen M. S. Grewal
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:763
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Lockdowns imposed throughout the US to control the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in all routine immunizations rates, including the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. It is feared that post-lockdown, t...

    Authors: Mugdha Thakur, Richard Zhou, Mukundan Mohan, Achla Marathe, Jiangzhuo Chen, Stefan Hoops, Dustin Machi, Bryan Lewis and Anil Vullikanti
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:743
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. The nationwide lockdown (March 25 to June 8, 2020) to curb the spread of coronavirus infection had significant health and economic impacts on the Indian economy. There is limited empirical evidence on how COVI...

    Authors: Susmita Chatterjee, Palash Das and Anna Vassall
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:711
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Uganda accounts for 5% of all malaria cases and deaths reported globally and, in endemic countries, pregnancy is a risk factor for both acquisition of P. falciparum infection and development of severe malaria. In...

    Authors: Francesco Vladimiro Segala, Francesco Di Gennaro, Jerry Ictho, Mariangela L’Episcopia, Emmanuel Onapa, Claudia Marotta, Elda De Vita, James Amone, Valentina Iacobelli, Joseph Ogwang, Giovanni Dall’Oglio, Benedict Ngole, Rita Murri, Lameck Olal, Massimo Fantoni, Samuel Okori…
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:668
    Content type: Study protocol Published on:

  10. Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is one of the most frequent bloodstream infections. High mortality of SAB can be significantly reduced by regular infectious disease (ID) consultations and appropriate clini...

    Authors: Simona Arientová, Zdeněk Jícha, Ondřej Beran and Michal Holub
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:631
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. This study aimed to identify differences and similarities among adolescents and parents in various psychosocial factors influencing meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) vaccination acceptance. Besides, the impact of t...

    Authors: Veja Widdershoven, Rianne P. Reijs, Amanja Verhaegh-Haasnoot, Robert A. C. Ruiter and Christian J. P. A. Hoebe
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:507
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Increased and inappropriate antimicrobial use are the key drivers of the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, and there have been widespread concerns around potential antimicrobial misuse, overuse and their ...

    Authors: Aya Olivia Nakitanda, Pär Karlsson, Lukas Löfling, Carolyn E. Cesta and Ingvild Odsbu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:492
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) are public health burdens globally. The percentage of non-SARS CoV-2 respiratory viruses among patients having ARI and SARI who v...

    Authors: Nagarajan Muruganandam, Avijit Roy, Nimisha Sivanandan, Alwin Vins, Nisha Beniwal, Harpreet Kaur, Varsha Potdar and Rehnuma Parvez
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:463
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. A range of strict nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were implemented in many countries to combat the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These NPIs may also be effective at controlling seasonal influenz...

    Authors: Zekai Qiu, Zicheng Cao, Min Zou, Kang Tang, Chi Zhang, Jing Tang, Jinfeng Zeng, Yaqi Wang, Qianru Sun, Daoze Wang and Xiangjun Du
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:331
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has attracted great public health efforts across the world. Few studies, however, have described the potential impact of these measures on other impor...

    Authors: Haopeng Li, Feng Ling, Shiyu Zhang, Ying Liu, Chongjian Wang, Hualiang Lin, Jimin Sun and Yinglin Wu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:296
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the predominant etiological agent of the common cold in children and adults. A recent study showed that the inhibitory effect of face masks on viral shedding of HRV was less prominent...

    Authors: Ran Jia, Lijuan Lu, Shu Li, Pengcheng Liu, Menghua Xu, Lingfeng Cao, Liyun Su and Jin Xu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:253
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. The Public Health Services in the Rotterdam region, the Netherlands, observed a substantial decrease of non-COVID-19 notifiable infectious diseases and institutional outbreaks during the first wave of the COVI...

    Authors: Babette van Deursen, Margot Hagenaars, Abraham Meima, Liselotte van Asten, Jan Hendrik Richardus, Ewout Fanoy and Helene Voeten
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:208
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has had a heavy impact on national health system, especially in the first wave. That impact hit principally the intensive care units (ICUs). The large ...

    Authors: Gianluca Zuglian, Diego Ripamonti, Alessandra Tebaldi, Marina Cuntrò, Ivano Riva, Claudio Farina and Marco Rizzi
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:185
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of death globally. India carries the highest share of the global TB burden. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted diagnosis of TB in India, yet there is limited data on...

    Authors: Matthew Arentz, Jianing Ma, Peng Zheng, Theo Vos, Christopher J. L. Murray and Hmwe H. Kyu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:92
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. Bronchiolitis is the most common viral infection of the lower respiratory tract in infants under 2 years of age. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the seasonal bronchiolitis peaks before and dur...

    Authors: Carmina Guitart, Sara Bobillo-Perez, Carme Alejandre, Georgina Armero, Cristian Launes, Francisco Jose Cambra, Monica Balaguer and Iolanda Jordan
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2022 22:84
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Due to the social isolation measures adopted in an attempt to mitigate the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, there has been a reduction in vaccination coverage of children and adolescents in several countrie...

    Authors: Tércia Moreira Ribeiro da Silva, Ana Carolina Micheletti Gomide Nogueira de Sá, Ed Wilson Rodrigues Vieira, Elton Junio Sady Prates, Mark Anthony Beinner and Fernanda Penido Matozinhos
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:1237
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. Retention of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their infants in HIV care still remains low in Uganda. Recent literature has shown that the effects of COVID-19 mitigation measures may increase disease burden...

    Authors: Sylivia Nalubega, Joshua Kyenkya, Irene Bagaya, Sylvia Nabukenya, Nelson Ssewankambo, Damalie Nakanjako and Agnes N. Kiragga
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:980
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  26. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously threatens general public health services globally. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HIV care continuum in Jiangsu province, China.

    Authors: Lingen Shi, Weiming Tang, Haiyang Hu, Tao Qiu, Gifty Marley, Xiaoyan Liu, Yuheng Chen, Yunting Chen and Gengfeng Fu
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:768
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as sanitary measures and travel restrictions, aimed at controlling the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), may affect the transmission dy...

    Authors: Keita Wagatsuma, Iain S. Koolhof, Yugo Shobugawa and Reiko Saito
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:734
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Nosocomial infections (NIs) are an important cause of mortality, and increasing evidence reveals that the prevalence of NIs can be reduced through effective prevention and control measures. The aim of this stu...

    Authors: Chunmei Su, Zhiqin Zhang, Xu Zhao, Hanlin Peng, Yi Hong, Lili Huang, Jie Huang, Xiangming Yan, Shuiyan Wu and Zhenjiang Bai
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:693
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. We investigated for change in blood stream infections (BSI) with Enterobacterales, coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS), Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Staphylococcus aureus during the first UK wave of SARS-CoV...

    Authors: Sarah Denny, Timothy M. Rawson, Peter Hart, Giovanni Satta, Ahmed Abdulaal, Stephen Hughes, Mark Gilchrist, Nabeela Mughal and Luke S. P. Moore
    Citation: BMC Infectious Diseases 2021 21:556
    Content type: Research article Published on: