• Sun Bean Kim, Young-Eun Kim, Taemo Bang, Minwoo Hong, Munkhzul Radnaabaatar, Kyungmin Huh, Ki Ho Hong, and Jaehun Jung.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2023 Dec 4; 38 (47): e408e408.

AbstractThe coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has brought significant changes to infectious disease management globally. This study explored changes in clinical microbiological testing trends and their implications for infectious disease incidence and medical utilization during the pandemic. We collected nationwide claims for monthly clinical microbiology tests from January 2018 to March 2022 using the National Health Insurance Service database. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models were employed to make predictions for each disease based on the baseline period (January 2018 to January 2020). The results showed a significant decrease in general bacterial and fungal cultures, respiratory infectious disease-related, and inflammatory markers, while the representatives of tests for vector-borne diseases, healthcare-associated infections, and chronic viral infections remained stable. The study highlights the potential of clinical microbiological testing trends as an additional surveillance tool and offers implications for future infectious disease management and surveillance strategies in pandemic settings.© 2023 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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