Contact tracing

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What is contact tracing?

As contact tracing ( German  tracing of chains of infection ) is called as part of the contact investigation keeping track of contacts, as well as the active determination of persons who contact a diseased (or an infectious suspected) had and could be infected.

With this epidemiological method, on the one hand, the infected person can be treated medically and, on the other hand, transmission to other people can be prevented. The aim of "contact tracing" is to identify people who have had direct or indirect contact with an index person . All persons potentially infected by the index person are informed about the existing risk of possible infection and advised on necessary measures. Infectious diseases can be either viral or bacterial. The investigation of the surroundings is regulated by law in all democratic countries. The health authorities of each country decide for which diseases it is used.

A typical example of an environmental investigation that has been used for decades is tuberculosis . As soon as a person is diagnosed with tuberculosis, their surroundings such as family, school class, military unit are also tested for tuberculosis and, if necessary, treatment is started. This can reduce the likelihood of tuberculosis harming the sick person and spreading it to other people.

Contact tracing is described as an efficient and cost-effective medical-epidemiological measure to specifically uncover chains of infection from infectious diseases such as smallpox . With contact tracing, especially in the case of sexually transmitted diseases, a wealth of information can be collected about the spread pattern of an infectious disease and its spread can ultimately also be contained - by simultaneously informing all people involved in the contacts. According to the World Health Organization, however , contact tracing is generally hardly a suitable measure against the spread of influenza viruses .

Contact tracing apps that work via Bluetooth are used to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kiehl: Infection protection and infection epidemiology. Technical terms - definitions - interpretations. Ed .: Robert Koch Institute, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89606-258-1 , p. 27, keyword contact tracing .
  2. ^ World Health Organization and Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS. Sexually transmitted diseases: policies and principles for prevention and care. Geneva: UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, 1999
  3. ↑ Martin Eichner: Case Isolation and Contact Tracing Can Prevent the Spread of Smallpox . Am J Epidemiol 2003; 158: 118-128
  4. ↑ Katz, BP, Caine, VA, and Jones, RB: Evaluation of field follow up in a sexually transmitted clinic for patients with Neisseria Gonorrhoea and Chlamydia Trachomatis . Sexually Trans. Dis. 1992; 19: 99-103
  5. ↑ SN Wakasiakai: Partner Notification in the Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Nairobi, Kenya. East African Medical Journal Vol. 80 No. December 12, 2003
  6. ↑ Global Influenza Programs. Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza , World Health Orginization 2019.
  7. ↑ Marcel Heberlein: Comment: Back to halfway normal life with the Corona app. In: tagesschau.de. January 4, 2020, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Luca Ferretti, Chris Wymant, Michelle Kendall, Lele Zhao, Anel Nurtay: Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing . In: Science . March 31, 2020, ISSN  0036-8075 , doi : 10.1126 / science.abb6936 , PMID 32234805 ( sciencemag.org [accessed April 5, 2020]).
  9. ↑ Government considers tracing app to be a "central component" for containing the coronavirus. DER SPIEGEL, April 6, 2020, accessed April 7, 2020 .