Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control-Online Journal

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Development on the Respiratory Infectious Disease Practice in the COVID-19 Era

Naoki IWANAGA¹⁾ and Hiroshi MUKAE²⁾
¹⁾Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, ²⁾Department of Respiratory Medicine, Medical and Dental Sciences, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has transformed the environment surrounding the practice of respiratory infectious diseases: emerging evidence on COVID-19 is being built up around the world daily, and public interest has increased to an unprecedented level. As a result of the widespread adoption of hand hygiene and social distance by the public, the number of cases of influenza and other non-COVID-19 infectious diseases has decreased dramatically.
Regarding COVID-19, severe cases have occurred mainly among patients with underlying medical conditions and the elderly, straining medical care, but the vaccine has been effective in suppressing infection in vaccinated cases. On the other hand, the mutant strains have also increased the risk of infectivity, and in the fifth wave in Japan, infection spread mainly among young people who had not been vaccinated. Since the virus will continue to mutate and there will be a certain number of non-vaccinated individuals, SARS-CoV-2 infection will not be completely eradicated in the future. Therefore, we must always consider COVID-19 as one of the differential diseases for the numerous respiratory infections in the post-COVID-19 era. Particular attention should be paid to the possibility of COVID-19 pneumonia in the initial diagnosis of a patient with interstitial pneumonia. On the other hand, even in the disaster caused by COVID-19, the number of patients with aspiration pneumonia has not shown a downward trend because of a super-aging society, and this is one of the major issues in respiratory care in Japan.

Key words：COVID-19, interstitial pneumonia, aspiration pneumonia

e-mail: niwanaga＠nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Received: June 15, 2022
Accepted: July 11, 2022

37 (6)：235─238,2022