scholarly journals Contact Tracing: A Memory Task With Consequences for Public Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 174569162097820
Author(s):  
Maryanne Garry ◽  
Lorraine Hope ◽  
Rachel Zajac ◽  
Ayesha J. Verrall ◽  
Jamie M. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Investigative Interviewing ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Variable Level ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Crucial Part

In the battle for control of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), we have few weapons. Yet contact tracing is among the most powerful. Contact tracing is the process by which public-health officials identify people, or contacts, who have been exposed to a person infected with a pathogen or another hazard. For all its power, though, contact tracing yields a variable level of success. One reason is that contact tracing’s ability to break the chain of transmission is only as effective as the proportion of contacts who are actually traced. In part, this proportion turns on the quality of the information that infected people provide, which makes human memory a crucial part of the efficacy of contact tracing. Yet the fallibilities of memory, and the challenges associated with gathering reliable information from memory, have been grossly underestimated by those charged with gathering it. We review the research on witnesses and investigative interviewing, identifying interrelated challenges that parallel those in contact tracing, as well as approaches for addressing those challenges.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Current States and Future Directions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Jabed Morshed Chowdhury ◽  
Md Sadek Ferdous ◽  
Kamanashis Biswas ◽  
Niaz Chowdhury ◽  
Vallipuram Muthukkumarasamy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
High Level

Contact tracing has become a key tool for public health officials to effectively combat the spread of new diseases, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, this process is either manual or semi-manual and often very time consuming and inefficient. It largely relies of human memory and cannot be scalable to tackle pandemic like COVID-19. Researchers and practitioners around the world have turned into the technology based approaches to provide a scalable solution. Smartphone and associated digital technologies have the potential to provide a better solution due to its high level of penetration coupled with mobility. However, information like location or proximity associated with other personal data are very sensitive private information and can be used by the states to do surveillance over their citizen. Researchers have proposed different contact tracing protocols to overcome or limit those concerns. In this paper, we have critically reviewed these protocols and apps to identify the strength and weakness of each approaches. Finally, we have pen down our recommendations to make contact tracing mechanism more universally inter-operable and privacy preserving.

scholarly journals A cross-sectional population survey of physicians in Alberta, Canada about a novel provincial contact tracing smartphone app

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Jerome ◽  
M Pietrosanu ◽  
K Dhillon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
English Language ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Smartphone App ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Knowledge And Beliefs ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Health Zone ◽  
Public Health Campaigns

Abstract Background The Canadian province of Alberta released the ABTraceTogether smartphone app in May 2020 to assist in contact tracing during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Public engagement with this public health tool has been low, limiting the effectiveness of the intervention. This study examines physician knowledge of the app and practice patterns in relation to the app. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional self-administered online English language survey of physicians and medical students in Alberta, Canada. The survey link was sent to all registered members of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta and was distributed by other provincial physician organizations and health zone leaders. Results The survey received 317 responses. 96% of participants were aware of the app but only 27% had recommended the app to patients. The most common reason provided for not downloading or recommending the app was that participants had security concerns about the app. 23% of participants indicated they did not believe they had a responsibility to recommend the app to others. Conclusions Our study provides insights into participants’ knowledge and beliefs about the ABTraceTogether app. This information may be valuable to public health officials who wish to engage physicians in future public health campaigns.

scholarly journals Measuring Appropriate Antimicrobial Use: Attempts at Opening the Black Box

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S. Spivak ◽  
Sara E. Cosgrove ◽  
Arjun Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Antimicrobial Use ◽  
Reference Standard ◽  
Consensus Definition ◽  
Antimicrobial Prescribing ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Appropriate Antimicrobial Use

Abstract Indiscriminate antimicrobial use has plagued medicine since antibiotics were first introduced into clinical practice >70 years ago. Infectious diseases physicians and public health officials have advocated for preservation of these life-saving drugs for many years. With rising burden of antimicrobial-resistant organisms and Clostridium difficile infections, halting unnecessary antimicrobial use has become one of the largest public health concerns of our time. Inappropriate antimicrobial use has been quantified in various settings using numerous definitions; however, no established reference standard exists. With mounting national efforts to improve antimicrobial use, a consensus definition and standard method of measuring appropriate antimicrobial use is imperative. We review existing literature on systematic approaches to define and measure appropriate antimicrobial use, and describe a collaborative effort at developing standardized audit tools for assessing the quality of antimicrobial prescribing.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Challenges and Future Directions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Jabed Morshed Chowdhury ◽  
Md Sadek Ferdous ◽  
Kamanashis Biswas ◽  
Niaz Chowdhury ◽  
Vallipuram Muthukkumarasamy
Keyword(s):  
Personal Data ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Significant Challenge ◽  
Innovative Solution ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
High Level

Contact tracing has become a vital tool for public health officials to effectively combat the spread of new diseases, such asthe novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Contact tracing is not new to epidemiologist rather, it used manual or semi-manualapproaches that are incredibly time-consuming, costly and inefficient. It mostly relies on human memory while scalabilityis a significant challenge in tackling pandemics. The unprecedented health and socio-economic impacts led researchersand practitioners around the world to search for technology-based approaches for providing scalable and timely answers.Smartphones and associated digital technologies have the potential to provide a better approach due to their high level ofpenetration, coupled with mobility. While data-driven solutions are extremely powerful, the fear among citizens is thatinformation like location or proximity associated with other personal data and can be weaponised by the states to enforcesurveillance. Low adoption rate of such apps due to the lack of trust questioned the efficacy and demanded researchers tofind innovative solution for building digital-trust, and appropriately balancing privacy and accuracy of data. In this paper,we have critically reviewed such protocols and apps to identify the strength and weakness of each approach. Finally, wehave penned down our recommendations to make the future contact tracing mechanisms more universally inter-operable andprivacy-preserving.

scholarly journals A REVIEW ARTICLE ON: CORONA VIRUS A RAISING GAINT

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suraj G Malpani ◽  
Shraddha T Nemane ◽  
Vishweshwar M Dharashive ◽  
Nilesh N Shinde ◽  
Sushil S Kore
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Antiviral Treatment ◽  
Genome Structure ◽  
Respiratory Illness ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Mode Of Transmission

The 2019-nCoV has been identified as the reason of an outbreak of respiratory illness in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China beginning in December 2019. This outbreak had spread to 19 countries with 11,791 confirmed cases, including 213 deaths, as of January 31, 2020. The WHO declared it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This study analyzed and discussed 70 research articles published until January 31, 2020 for a better understanding of the virology, pathogenesis, mode of transmission, classification, genome structure of this virus. Studies thus far have shown origination in link to a seafood market in Wuhan, but specific animal association has not been confirmed. The reported symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, pneumonia, headache, diarrhea, hemoptysis, and dyspnea. Preventive measures like masks, hand hygiene practices, avoidance of public contact, case detection, contact tracing, and quarantines are being suggested for reducing the transmission. To date, no specific antiviral treatment is proven effective; hence, infected people primarily rely on symptomatic treatment and supportive care. Although these studies had relevance to control a public emergency, more research need to be conducted to provide valid and reliable ways to manage this kind of public health emergency in both short- and long- term. Coronaviruses (CoV) belong to the genus Coronavirus with its high mutation rate in the Corona viridae. The objective of this review article was to have a primary   opinion about the disease mode of transmission, virology in this early stage of COVID-19 outbreak. Keywords: 2019-nCoV, virology, pathogenesis, genome structure

scholarly journals A review of infectious disease surveillance to inform public health action against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Larsen ◽  
Rachel E. Dinero ◽  
Elizabeth Asiago-Reddy ◽  
Hyatt Green ◽  
Sandra Lane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Public Health Action ◽  
Infectious Disease Surveillance ◽  
Genetic Sequencing ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Infected People

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic exposed the inadequacy of infectious disease surveillance throughout the US and other countries. Isolation and contact tracing to identify all infected people are key public health interventions necessary to control infectious disease outbreaks. However, these activities are dependent upon the surveillance platform to identify infections quickly. A robust surveillance platform can also reinforce community adherence to behavioral interventions such as social distancing. In situations where contact tracing is feasible, all suspected cases and contacts of confirmed cases must be tested for a SARS-CoV-2 infection and effectively isolated. At the community level wastewater surveillance can identify areas where transmission is or is not occurring, and genetic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 can help to elucidate the intensity of transmission independent of the number of known cases and hospitalizations. State and county public health departments should improve the infectious disease surveillance platform whilst the public is practicing social distancing. These enhanced surveillance activities are necessary to contain the epidemic once the curve has been sufficiently flattened in highly burdened areas, and to prevent escalation in areas where transmission is minimal.

scholarly journals A Literature Review of 2019 Novel Coronavirus During the Early Outbreak Period: Epidemiology, Causes, Clinical Manifestation and Diagnosis, Prevention and Control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sasmita Poudel Adhikari ◽  
Sha Meng ◽  
Yuju Wu ◽  
Yuping Mao ◽  
Ruixue Ye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Antiviral Treatment ◽  
Respiratory Illness ◽  
Symptomatic Treatment ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Infected People ◽  
And Control

The 2019-nCoV has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China beginning in December 2019. This epidemic had spread to 19 countries with 11,791 confirmed cases, including 213 deaths, as of January 31, 2020. The World Health Organization declared it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. This study analyzed and discussed 70 research articles published until January 31, 2020 for a better understanding of the epidemiology, causes, clinical diagnosis, prevention and control of this virus. Studies thus far have shown origination in connection to a seafood market in Wuhan, but specific animal association has not been confirmed. The reported symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, pneumonia, headache, diarrhea, hemoptysis, and dyspnea. Preventive measures such as masks, hand hygiene practices, avoidance of public contact, case detection, contact tracing, and quarantines are effective for reducing the transmission. To date, no specific antiviral treatment is proven effective, hence, infected people primarily rely on symptomatic treatment and supportive care. Although these studies had relevance to control a public emergency, more research need to be conducted to provide valid and reliable ways to manage this kind of public health emergency in both short- and long- term.

scholarly journals Multilevel Integrated Model with a Novel Systems Approach (MIMANSA) for Simulating the Spread of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arpita Welling ◽  
Abhilasha Patel ◽  
Padmaj Kulkarni ◽  
Vinay G. Vaidya
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infection Rate ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Asymptomatic Patients ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Impact

AbstractDue to the spread of the coronavirus, public health officials grapple with multiple issues such as recommending a lockdown, contact tracing, promoting the use of masks, social distancing, frequent handwashing, as well as quarantining. It is even more challenging to find the optimal combination of these factors without the use of a suitable mathematical model.In this paper, we discuss a novel systems approach to building a model for simulating the spread of COVID-19. The model, MIMANSA, divides an individual’s in-person social interactions into three areas, namely home, workplace, and public places. The model tracks the in-person interactions and follows the virus spread. When a new silent carrier is created, the model automatically expands and builds a new layer in the network.MIMANSA has four control mechanisms, namely the exposure, infection rate, lockdown, and quarantining. MIMANSA differentiates between virus-infected patients, silent carriers, and healthy carriers. It can consider variations in virus activity levels of asymptomatic patients, varying the exposure to the virus, and varying the infection rate depending on the person’s immunity. MIMANSA can simulate scenarios to study the impact of many different conditions simultaneously. It could assist public health officials in complex decision making, enable scientists in projecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread and aid hospital administrators in the management of beds and equipment.MIMANSA is trained and validated using the data from the USA and India. Our results show that MIMANSA forecasts the number of COVID-19 cases in the USA, and India within a 3% margin of error.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Contact Tracing Interviews Using Psychological Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline R. Evans ◽  
Haley Dawson ◽  
Hana Chae ◽  
Deborah Goldfarb ◽  
Ronald P. Fisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Investigative Interviewing ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Resource Requirements

Contact tracing is vital to controlling the spread of disease. This process relies on effective recall of past interactions during contact tracing interviews; as such, psychological science suggests that limitations on human memory and cognition could hinder contact tracing efforts. Methods for enhancing memory performance have been widely addressed within the psychological literature. Further, there is evidence that self-administered interviews are an effective way to gather information while conserving person power. The current experiment leveraged the unique conditions of an ongoing pandemic and research on both memory and self-administered interviewing to compare two interviews: an enhanced cognitive protocol based on best practices in investigative interviewing, and a control interview that aligned with current practices for COVID-19 contact tracing interviews. Each protocol was tested via two modalities: an interviewer-led audio-only Zoom call and a self-led online survey. Across 200 interviews with adults throughout the United States, the enhanced protocol increased the number of contacts reported by more than 50% as compared to the control protocol. Modality (i.e., call vs. online survey) had neither a main nor moderating effect on recall. These findings suggest that implementing psychologically-informed interview techniques can significantly increase the number of contacts that infected persons can report. Further, these improvements can be realized in an interviewer-free context, reducing time and resource requirements.

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