Question

What outbreaks, disease, or pandemics have used the mitigation measure of Contact Tracing.

After identifying those three outbreaks, discuss what type of infection was attempting to be contained, what patients were told to do to prevent the spread (if possible) the country(s) where the contact tracing occurred (for each), and what signs and/or symptoms patients or contacts were told to look for.

Answer 1

  CONTACT TRACING

Contact tracing is the technique of identifying partners/ persons who have come in direct/indirect contact with the infected person. This technique will reduce the transmission of disease to a large extent. Contact tracing is done by identifying the contacts and isolating them and treating them if infected so as to reduce the risk of spread of disease in a population. The key to success in contact tracing is the patient himself who must disclose all contacts voluntarily. Contacts are sought quickly as possible using telephones and rapid method of communication. The contacts are then persuaded to attend the clinic for examination and treatment. Some of the outbreaks that made use of contact tracing are Tuberculosis, Sexually Transmitted Disease(STD), Some Bacterial infections, Ebola virus disease, Nippah virus disease, COVID-19 pandemic etc. These outbreaks have used mitigation measures of contact tracing.

Viral infection of corona virus(COVID-19) was the recent attempted contact tracing that was done all over the world. This is an infectious disease caused by corona virus. People infected with this corona virus was having respiratory illness, General symptoms of common cold used to occur initially which gradually raises to respiratory issues. Elder people and those people with other debilitating diseases like cardio vascular disease, chronic respiratory disease etc are more to prone to get infected. The spread of infection was controlled by tracing the contacts and isolat ing the persons infected of those who came in contact.

Signs and symptoms- Fever,Cough, Breathing difficulty, chills, headache, Sore throat, runny nose, nausea, vomitting, chest pressure, fatigue, wheezing, body aches, diarrhea. Some symptoms might require serious medical attention- breathing difficulty, pressure on chest, pneumonic fever , delirium and confusions.