Effectiveness of Contact Tracing on Viral Disease Mitigation and Suppression: An Evidence-Based Review (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Jean Craig ◽  
Rubina Rizvi ◽  
Van C Willis ◽  
William J Kassler ◽  
Gretchen Purcell Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Disease Outcomes ◽  
Effective Public Health

BACKGROUND Contact tracing in association with quarantine and isolation is an important public health tool to control outbreaks of infectious diseases. This strategy has been widely implemented in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The effectiveness of this non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) is largely dependent on social interactions within the population and its combination with other interventions. Given the high transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2, small serial intervals, and asymptomatic transmission patterns, the effectiveness of contact tracing for this novel agent is largely unknown. OBJECTIVE To identify and synthesize evidence regarding the effectiveness of contact tracing on infectious viral disease outcomes based on prior scientific literature. METHODS An evidence-based review was conducted to identify studies from MEDLINE (including pre-print medRxiv server content) related to the effectiveness of contact tracing in viral outbreaks. The search dates were from database inception to July 24, 2020. Outcomes of interest were measures of incidence, transmission, hospitalization, and mortality. RESULTS Out of 159 unique records retrieved, 45 records were reviewed at the full-text level, with 24 meeting all inclusion criteria. Included studies utilized mathematical modeling (n=14), observational (n=8), and systematic review (n=2) approaches. Only two studies considered digital contact tracing. Contact tracing was mostly evaluated in combination with other NPIs and/or pharmaceutical interventions (PIs). While some degree of effectiveness in decreasing viral disease incidence, transmission, and resulting hospitalizations and mortality was observed, these results were highly dependent on epidemic severity (R0 value), number of contacts traced (including pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases), timeliness, duration, and compliance with combination interventions such as isolation, quarantine, and treatment. Contact tracing effectiveness was particularly limited by logistical challenges associated with increased outbreak size and speed of spread. CONCLUSIONS Timely deployment of contact tracing strategically layered with other NPIs could be an effective public health tool for mitigating and suppressing infectious outbreaks by decreasing viral disease incidence, transmission, and resulting hospitalizations and mortality.

scholarly journals Fostering More-Effective Public Health by Identifying Administrative Evidence-Based Practices

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross C. Brownson ◽  
Peg Allen ◽  
Kathleen Duggan ◽  
Katherine A. Stamatakis ◽  
Paul C. Erwin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Administrative Evidence

scholarly journals Challenges to create an evidence-based programme register in France

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Arwidson ◽  
C Verry-Jolive
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Disease Prevention ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Expert Committee ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Addiction Prevention ◽  
Prevention Interventions

Abstract The majority of health promotion and disease prevention interventions implemented in both targeted and general populations have unknown effectiveness. This contrasts with drug treatments which must be proven effective before they can be prescribed. The recent evaluation of four addiction prevention interventions chosen by public health implementers showed that two had positive impacts on addiction prevention and two had deleterious effects. Despite over 50 years’ worth of scientific literature on the evaluation of health promotion and disease prevention programmes, it is little known and little used by project promoters. These promoters cannot be blamed for not using this literature as it is often difficult to access, to read and to understand. Even if they successfully access and read the articles, interventions are often not described properly, rendering the text useless for implementers. It is therefore necessary to create interfaces that translate this literature into a form useful for funders and project promoters. As a result, Public Health France has studied existing portals in both the United States and in Europe. An independent double-reviewing process comparable to the review process used by scientific journals for manuscripts as in the Norwegian portal was chosen for this reason.An expert committee has worked during more than one year to design and test a scoring grid that will be published soon. The 80+ programme evaluations found in the scientific literature will now be reviewed with the approved grid. Public Health France has also begun visiting each region in France to present the portal to local health authorities and NGOs to enable project promoters to submit their programmes soon and to promote the use of evidence-based or research-based programmes when possible.

scholarly journals World leaders’ usage of Twitter in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a content analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohaib R Rufai ◽  
Catey Bunce
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Group Of Seven ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Public Health Information ◽  
Effective Public Health

ABSTRACT Background It is crucial that world leaders mount effective public health measures in response to COVID-19. Twitter may represent a powerful tool to help achieve this. Here, we explore the role of Twitter as used by Group of Seven (G7) world leaders in response to COVID-19. Methods This was a qualitative study with content analysis. Inclusion criteria were as follows: viral tweets from G7 world leaders, attracting a minimum of 500 ‘likes’; keywords ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’; search dates 17 November 2019 to 17 March 2020. We performed content analysis to categorize tweets into appropriate themes and analyzed associated Twitter data. Results Eight out of nine (88.9%) G7 world leaders had verified and active Twitter accounts, with a total following of 85.7 million users. Out of a total 203 viral tweets, 166 (82.8%) were classified as ‘Informative’, of which 48 (28.6%) had weblinks to government-based sources, while 19 (9.4%) were ‘Morale-boosting’ and 14 (6.9%) were ‘Political’. Numbers of followers and viral tweets were not strictly related. Conclusions Twitter may represent a powerful tool for world leaders to rapidly communicate public health information with citizens. We would urge general caution when using Twitter for health information, with a preference for tweets containing official government-based information sources.

Using Science-Based Guidelines to Shape Public Health Law

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (S4) ◽  
pp. 65-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Zaza ◽  
John Clymer ◽  
Linda Upmeyer ◽  
Stephen B. Thacker
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Evidence Based Medicine ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Health Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Based Medicine

Compared to evidence-based public health, evidence-based medicine is a more familiar phrase. Evidence-based medicine has become increasingly popular in the past decade, due in large part to the emergence of computerized database search technology and advanced statistical tools which allow researchers to quickly identify and summarize vast amounts of scientific information.Today, the concept of evidence-based public health is gaining momentum and has grown in popularity. However, the term “evidence-based” lacks clarification and is subject to a variety of interpretations. The evidence that supports evidence-based medicine or public health may include individual experience, anecdotal information, the content of a single scientific article, or the results of a sophisticated systematic review of scientific literature. The imprecise language used to describe evidence leads to confusion over what types of evidence are most appropriate in answering different types of questions.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of Contact Tracing on Viral Disease Mitigation and Suppression: An Evidence-Based Review (Preprint)

10.2196/32468 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Jean Craig ◽  
Rubina Rizvi ◽  
Van C Willis ◽  
William J Kassler ◽  
Gretchen Purcell Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Viral Disease ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Evidence Based

scholarly journals Re-emerging Infectious Disease (RED) Alert tool

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maneesha Chitanvis ◽  
Ashlynn Daughton ◽  
Forest M Altherr ◽  
Geoffery Fairchild ◽  
William Rosenberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Emerging Infectious Disease ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Incidence Trends ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Emergence Event

Objective: Although relying on verbal definitions of "re-emergence", descriptions that classify a “re-emergence” event as any significant recurrence of a disease that had previously been under public health control, and subjective interpretations of these events is currently the conventional practice, this has the potential to hinder effective public health responses. Defining re-emergence in this manner offers limited ability for ad hoc analysis of prevention and control measures and facilitates non-reproducible assessments of public health events of potentially high consequence. Re-emerging infectious disease alert (RED Alert) is a decision-support tool designed to address this issue by enhancing situational awareness by providing spatiotemporal context through disease incidence pattern analysis following an event that may represent a local (country-level) re-emergence. The tool’s analytics also provide users with the associated causes (socioeconomic indicators) related to the event, and guide hypothesis-generation regarding the global scenario.Introduction: Definitions of “re-emerging infectious diseases” typically encompass any disease occurrence that was a historic public health threat, declined dramatically, and has since presented itself again as a significant health problem. Examples include antimicrobial resistance leading to resurgence of tuberculosis, or measles re-appearing in previously protected communities. While the language of this verbal definition of “re-emergence” is sensitive enough to capture most epidemiologically relevant resurgences, its qualitative nature obfuscates the ability to quantitatively classify disease re-emergence events as such.Methods: Our tool automatically computes historic disease incidence and performs trend analyses to help elucidate events which a user may considered a true re-emergence in a subset of pertinent infectious diseases (measles, cholera, yellow fever, and dengue). The tool outputs data visualizations that illustrate incidence trends in diverse and informative ways. Additionally, we categorize location and incidence-specific indicators for re-emergence to provide users with associated indicators as well as justifications and documentation to guide users’ next steps. Additionally, the tool also houses interactive maps to facilitate global hypothesis-generation.Results: These outputs provide historic trend pattern analyses as well as contextualization of the user’s situation with similar locations. The tool also broadens users' understanding of the given situation by providing related indicators of the likely re-emergence, as well as the ability to investigate re-emergence factors of global relevance through spatial analysis and data visualization.Conclusions: The inability to categorically name a re-emergence event as such is due to lack of standardization and/or availability of reproducible, data-based evidence, and hinders timely and effective public health response and planning. While the tool will not explicitly call out a user scenario as categorically re-emergent or not, by providing users with context in both time and space, RED Alert aims to empower users with data and analytics in order to substantially enhance their contextual awareness; thus, better enabling them to formulate plans of action regarding re-emerging infectious disease threats at both the country and global level.

New models and taxonomies to understand and address the commercial determinants of health

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A B Gilmore ◽  
L Robertson ◽  
M Petticrew ◽  
N Maani Hessari
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Health It ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
Risk Framing ◽  
Effective Public Health

Abstract Current models of the determinants of health risk framing public health problems and solutions in ways that obscure the role that the private sector, in particular large transnational companies, play in shaping population health. This presentation will propose a new conceptual model of the commercial determinants of health which recognises the commercial sector's direct, indirect, upstream and downstream influences on health. It will also present emerging evidence-based taxonomies that draw together evidence on the key corporate practices which stymie the implementation of effective public health policies. In so doing, the presentation will explore how we move from understanding to addressing the commercial determinants of health.

scholarly journals Variations in Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions by State Correlate with COVID-19 Disease Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika J Avery ◽  
Jiayi Wang ◽  
Xinyu Ma ◽  
Qingkai Pan ◽  
Elizabeth E McGrady ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Respiratory Virus ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Disease Outcomes ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the lack of understanding around effective public health interventions to curtail the spread of an emerging respiratory virus. Here, we examined the public health approaches implemented by each state to limit the spread and burden of COVID-19. Our analysis revealed that stronger statewide interventions positively correlated with fewer COVID-19 deaths, but some neighboring states with distinct intervention strategies had similar SARS-CoV-2 case trajectories. Additionally, more than two weeks is needed to observe an impact on SARS-CoV-2 cases after an intervention is implemented. These data provide a critical framework to inform future interventions during emerging pandemics.

Sexually Transmitted Infections, Public Health, and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 377-390
Author(s):  
Mary Ott ◽  
John Santelli
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Transmitted Infection ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
Disease Outcomes ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Core Function

Sexually transmitted infection (STI) control is a core function of public health systems. “Control” refers to public health activities, such as surveillance and contact tracing, focused on preventing and treating STIs, including HIV. Control activities can curtail infection, but they also raise two important types of ethical concerns. The first is how to balance respect for individual liberties with maximizing population sexual health. The harm principle is one approach to navigating these trade-offs. The second is the ethical imperative to address disparities in STI disease outcomes, along with underlying disparities in access to STI information, prevention, and treatment. Both types of disparities map onto other cross-cutting issues of social justice, including poverty, gender, sexual orientation, race, and age. A human rights approach highlights inequalities and underlying structural determinants of health, with the goal of interrupting STI transmission and preventing future infection.

Epistemological deliberation: the challenges of producing evidence-based guidelines on lifestyle habits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Lagerlöf ◽  
Teun Zuiderent-Jerak ◽  
Morten Sager
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Lifestyle Habits ◽  
National Board ◽  
Evidence Based Guidelines ◽  
Based Medicine

Background: Promotion of healthy behaviour is increasingly highlighted worldwide as a way to improve public health, prevent disease incidence, and decrease long-term costs for healthcare. In Sweden the National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) used the well-established format of national guidelines to facilitate a more widespread use of approaches for promotion of healthy lifestyle habits in healthcare.Aims and objectives: The aim of this case study was to explore the tensions between public health knowledge and the tenets of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in the creation of national guidelines on lifestyle habits.Methods: Based on data from interviews with guideline professionals and the collected documents of the national guidelines, we examine how NBHW negotiated the conflicts between public health knowledge and the format of national guidelines. An analytical model based on approaches from the sociology of standardisation is used to explore the ramifications of these negotiations.Findings: In line with findings in the sociology of standardisation, we show how conflicts between public health knowledge and the format of national guidelines result in both having to yield on certain points. This, we claim, results in compromise, but perhaps also compromised notions of validity and causality.Discussion and conclusion: This case offers important learning about the general compatibility of public health and currently dominant methods of EBM. Important crossroads are outlined, concerning how validity and causality are configured in public health guidelines and how these require extensive epistemological deliberation.<br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Epistemological commitments on validity and causality within public health have been compromised to fit the format of national guidelines;</li><br /><li>Similarly, the format of national guidelines has been subordinated to the public health valuation of risk assessments;</li><br /><li>Integrating public health into an EBM format requires extensive epistemological deliberation.</li></ul>

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