Question

Write a summary thinking about addressing an audience that are new to contact tracing. Identify various populations that may need reasonable accommodations and ways that they can better communicate with them. Please make sure that it is simple enough for almost anyone to understand, but comprehensive enough to give them the important information that they should know.

Answer 1

Definition of Contact Tracing: The contact Tracing is defined as the identifying, assessing,screening and managing the people who have been exposed to a disease to prevent onward transmission.

When applied this contact Tracing process systematically will break the chain of infectious diseases or pandemic diseases like Spanish flu in 1900s, plague ( India), Covid - 19.

History of Contact Tracing: The world was suffered from various pademics, unlike social distancing which had not been used on such a wide scope and scale since the influenza pandemic of 1918, during that time doctors were reluctant to report the names of patients with any condition to health departments.

Special populations who get benefit from contact Tracing: The benefit of contact Tracing is mainly based on one Universal statement " Prevention is Better than Cure"

- Immuno compromised individuals - there are very prone for contaminated diseases, they provide suitable environment to grow, multiplication of organisms and they easily transmitted infection to others.

- elderly populations - due to lowering of their metabolic or immune status they easily affected by the pandamic diseases, hence if we do contact Tracing at their community or vulnerable areas ,can prevent spread of pandamic diseases.

- comorbid populations : people who are having co morbid conditions they are very much prone for pandamic effects.

By the help of contact Tracing we can perform certain screening programmes at vulnerable communities, collect database information about who are suffering from chronic viral infections like HIV,RSV,HCV,CMV and Chronic metabolic diseases like DM, HTN and chronic renal and liver diseases.

Contemporary Contact Tracing: Contemporary Tracing in the United States dates back to the early 20th century response to syphilis and later expanded to include other sexual transmitted disease, it debates right of confidentiality of infected person and the right of the infected person partner about exposure.

With the emergence of HIV and absence of effective HIV treatment in the 1980s and early 1990s , the right to privacy of the index patient was emphasized

Contact Tracing is achieved mainly by

1. Patient refferal,

2. Provider refferal,

3. A combination of the two,

4. Community - Embedded Disease Intervention specialists (CEDIS).

In olden days , non availability of vaccines for various pandemic diseases by the contact Tracing, patients sends to quarantine. This mainly based on incubation period of symptoms of organisms. The secret behind the quarantine is to develop HERD Immunity. It means our body will develop particular antibodies for particular pathogenic antigens.

Communication by Contact Tracing: Globally many countries recruited contact tracers as part of test,track and trace,

- for example in Covid pandemic in USA and UK large corps of volunteers have signed up online classes on the concept of and methods , that have served south Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan throughout the pandemic.

- communication techniques are key part of this training, clarifying signs and symptoms and explain local guidelines to contacts is mostly script based and eminently teachable.

- contact tracers to establish rapport with the contact which requires tact, Patience and empathy,

Unfortunately contact Tracing is applied unequally. Ex: Scottish legislation specifically targeted working class tenetment dwellers,

- some countries very much thoroughly about contact information collected and stored and explain alarm situation s by electronic information and Tracing through GPS and alert particular areas where possibility of spread of infections, this all done by digital app ex: Arogya sethu app in India.

Consequently , depending on modes of communication on that are difficult to teach risks jeopardizing the success of test,track and trace.

Summary of the topic : contact Tracing is to prevent pandemic diseases like Spanish flu, Covid -19, by doing detect, screening and management of diseases. This mainly helps for the population of immunocompromised, elderly population and comorbid conditions and chronic diseases because of they are most vulnerable for pandamic. The contact Tracing is best acheived by contact Tracing cources to volunteers, defence people to understand symptoms and signs of pandemic disease, educate the people time to time through electronic or print media about disease, and importance of Tracing. Currently many countries identified by the database, mobile app survivellance to give uptodate information to public. With the help of quarantine most of the person's they develop HERD Immunity.