Characteristics of and Public Health Emergency Responses to COVID-19 and H1N1 Outbreaks: A Case-Comparison Study

Qian Wang, Tiantian Zhang, Huanhuan Zhu, Ying Wang, Xin Liu, Ge Bai, Ruiming Dai, Ping Zhou and Li Luo
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Qian Wang: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Tiantian Zhang: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Huanhuan Zhu: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Ying Wang: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Xin Liu: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Ge Bai: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Ruiming Dai: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Ping Zhou: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Li Luo: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Background: Recently, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has already spread rapidly as a global pandemic, just like the H1N1 swine influenza in 2009. Evidences have indicated that the efficiency of emergency response was considered crucial to curb the spread of the emerging infectious disease. However, studies of COVID-19 on this topic are relatively few. Methods: A qualitative comparative study was conducted to compare the timeline of emergency responses to H1N1 (2009) and COVID-19, by using a set of six key time nodes selected from international literature. Besides, we also explored the spread speed and peak time of COVID-19 and H1N1 swine influenza by comparing the confirmed cases in the same time interval. Results: The government’s entire emergency responses to the epidemic, H1N1 swine influenza (2009) completed in 28 days, and COVID-19 (2019) completed in 46 days. Emergency responses speed for H1N1 was 18 days faster. As for the epidemic spread speed, the peak time of H1N1 came about 4 weeks later than that of COVID-19, and the H1N1 curve in America was flatter than COVID-19 in China within the first four months after the disease emerged. Conclusions: The speed of the emergency responses to H1N1 was faster than COVID-19, which might be an important influential factor for slowing down the arrival of the peak time at the beginning of the epidemic. Although COVID-19 in China is coming to an end, the government should improve the public health emergency system, in order to control the spread of the epidemic and lessen the adverse social effects in possible future outbreaks.

Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus; H1N1; emergency response; emerging infectious diseases; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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