Effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on respiratory tract virus infection: a review on research progress

Acute respiratory infections are mainly caused by viruses and the incidences of the infections are high in various populations, especially in young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients. Acute respiratory infections has resulted in high morbidity, mortality, and heavy disease burden worldwide. Therefore, effective prevention on virus-induced respiratory infections has become one of global issues of concern. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs, including personal protection, case isolation, travel restriction and other measures) are important ways to prevent respiratory virus infection and transmission. The NPIs implemented during COVID-19 pandemic not only effectively contained global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but also exerted an impact on the spread of other respiratory infectious viruses. In this article, we discussed changes in epidemiological characteristics of common respiratory viruses before and after the implementation of NPIs and reviewed the effects of NPIs on the transmission of respiratory infectious viruses.