# Estimating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infectious disease notifications in Klang district, Malaysia, 2020–2022

## TL;DR

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the reporting of other infectious diseases in Klang district, Malaysia, from 2020 to 2022.

## Contribution

The study quantifies the impact of pandemic-related public health measures on infectious disease notifications using statistical models.

## Key findings

- There was a reduction in notifications and registrations for 11 infectious diseases during the pandemic compared to previous years.
- The impact of the pandemic on disease notifications varied across diseases and over time.

## Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted disease surveillance systems globally, leading to reduced notifications of other infectious diseases. This study aims to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the infectious disease surveillance system in Klang district, Selangor state, Malaysia.

Data on notifiable diseases from 2014 to 2022 were sourced from the Klang District Health Office. The 11 diseases with more than 100 notifications each were included in the study. For these 11 diseases, a negative binomial regression model was used to explore the effect of the pandemic on case notifications and registrations by year, and a quasi-Poisson regression model was used to explore the changes by week.

The results showed a reduction in the number of notifications and registrations for all 11 diseases combined during the pandemic compared with previous years. Changes between expected and observed notifications by week were heterogeneous across the diseases.

These findings suggest that restrictive public health and social measures in Klang district may have impacted the transmission of other infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. The differential impact of the pandemic on disease notifications and reporting highlights the large ancillary effects of restrictive public health and social measures and the importance of building resilience into infectious disease surveillance systems.