In the era wreath, a variety of epidemiological conditions along the public have resigned. There are the ubiquitous “social distancing” and “contact tracing ‘newly politicized” flatten the curve. ” And as states and local governments are looking for a way out lockdowns who brought their economy to a virtual standstill even made its way into everyday conversation made. But what exactly is the search for contacts, and how it can help the company fight the epidemic COVID-19? Here are the basics of tried and true strategy for public health and hopes for its use in the crown pandemic: What is the search for contacts? Contact tracing is a bit ‘like detective work: Trained persons interview staff who have been diagnosed with an infectious disease, to find out who may have recently been in contact with. Then they say people who were exposed to encourage sometimes in quarantine, the disease continues to prevent spreading. Think of it as part of public health work and study part. The technique is a “cornerstone” of preventive medicine, said Dr. Laura Breeher, medical director of occupational health services at the Mayo Clinic. “Search for contacts, now is a moment of glory that identify with COVID because of the great importance of those individuals who are quickly and isolate them or have been exposed in quarantine,” he says. Contact tracing was during the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014, as well as in the SARS outbreak in 2003. It is used to combat sexually transmitted infections and other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis also be used. And when COVID-19 has become global, countries like South Korea and New Zealand have used aggressive contact in an effort to control the tracking outbreaks. It is updated here with our daily newsletter crown. How does contact tracing work? Once someone has been confirmed infected with a virus, such as a 19-COVID positive test, try the contact tracing down to pursue other, which has had to this person, the last prolonged exposure if they can being contagious. Generally, to be that the media exposure for more than 10 minutes within 6 feet of the person, says Dr. Breeher when the five minutes reduced bar in a medical facility such as a hospital. then look for health workers to reach each of these contacts, tell them you were exposed to, and what to do their next instructions. Can you regarding the symptoms is to say or to direct them to isolate themselves. What are the boundaries of the contact tracing? On the one hand the determination is to contact an arduous process. infectious patients and interviewing dozens of contacts takes time to achieve. For this reason, the search for contacts works best when it is low infection in a community, says Dr. Frank Esper, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the hospital Clinic of Cleveland Children. “If be quickly overwhelmed the response of health authorities to track the position contact at a point where there’s lots of people who are suffering from a particular disease, all those individuals,” he says. With a virus like COVID-19, which spreads through the air, it can get complicated. Contact Tracer could end up trying to those found on a plane or a bus near an infected person were, for example, even if the patient has never met. This is a radically different task from contact with a sexually transmitted infection such as HIV tends to involve tracing, shortest plenty of well-defined list of contacts for researchers. Health professionals have problems can also be set with contacts in connection if the phone records are out of date, or when an infected patient is too ill to identify their recent contacts. is the pursuit of contacts is also not much help when states and municipalities have already issued blocking orders, and when most people are still self-isolated. “You’ve written about, this is what we’re doing [with COVID-19] until the number of cases and the number of new cases much more than is manageable, and then you can restore contact tracing when it is downhill “says Dr. Esper. These efforts, combined with rigorous testing to counter a possible second wave of cases and prevent spiking again. Contact tracing COVID-19 infection has been shown to be particularly difficult because some infected people have no symptoms, and the time between infection and contagious always seems to be relatively short. in contexts of smaller communities, such as in medical facilities or nursing homes as before, even at the height of a pandemic looking for contacts can be helpful. As it has been the search for contacts used to fight Ebola? Contact tracing has been crucial during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The effort to detect cases in Liberia has ever been, at the time, although its effectiveness has been limited by organizational problems and mistrust of community health workers of the largest such initiatives. Ebola spreads far in the US, although some 29,000 people who were monitored for state and local health authorities to return from West Africa. Dr. Breeher the Mayo Clinic says a plan for the detection of Ebola contacts developed COVID 19 laid the foundations for its current contact tracing efforts. And the foundation for efforts during the pandemic outbreak of Ebola were probably similar, says Dr. But they usually do not spread Esper with different parameters, since Ebola was in the air. How to contact with other countries to fight COVID-19 Tracing? Today, many countries are struggling crown a combination of old-school contact with the techniques and technologically advanced monitoring methods. In South Korea, which combine to develop research plans of contacts for his response to respiratory syndrome Middle East (MERS) in 2015, tracers face interviews with patients with the phone data GPS phone, the transaction records credit cards and records of the surveillance camera has had a head start. Singapore has introduced a mobile app that uses Bluetooth to be signed when people are close together and then used to identify the data contacts after new cases were confirmed. In China some 9,000 contacts tracer was used in Wuhan alone. And closer to home, the Canadian government has launched a nationwide program launched contact that led to 27,000 volunteers tracking. What the United States does? to expand the contact tracing efforts have gradually in some US states and cities occurred, and perhaps not fast enough. San Francisco announced a pilot program with technology companies and about 250 workers will be trained to raise awareness in the coming weeks. In Massachusetts, the state will bring about 1,000 contact tracers. But national efforts can be much broader scale – Some experts estimate the country needs about 100,000 contact tracers to estimate COVID-19 to manage outbreaks. Can new technology help? Recently there buzz around a joint effort between Apple and Google to add software on their smartphone that would help in tracing contact. Google CEO stressed that is optionally used, and that there will be no policy to technology companies in the initiative. Some experts doubt that the project will make a difference, citing issues such as the possible excesses of false alarms. But Dr. Esper says the technology has promise, but identifies more contacts than necessary. “And ‘better identify those for you to lose more than it is someone who is infected or potentially infected,” he says. “Contact tracing will all try to find this group of people, those who have been infected by the index patients than those who were not infected by the index patient, but a ring that you can then seal and prevent the next level spread.” Please send any suggestions, cables and [email protected] stories. image copyright Scott G Winterton-Deseret News via AP
What is looking for contacts? Here’s how it could be used to combat coronaviruses
