Efficacy of a student-led community contact tracing program partnered with an academic medical center during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Ann Epidemiol
; 56: 26-33.e1, 2021 Apr.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1062223
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
Contact tracing has proven successful at controlling coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) globally, and the Center for Health Security has recommended that the United States add 100,000 contact tracers to the current workforce.METHODS:
To address gaps in local contact tracing, health professional students partnered with their academic institution to conduct contact tracing for all COVID-19 cases diagnosed onsite, which included identifying and reaching their contacts, educating participants, and providing social resources to support effective quarantine and isolation.RESULTS:
From March 24 to May 28, 536 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were contacted and reported an average of 2.6 contacts. Contacts were informed of their exposure, asked to quarantine, and monitored for the onset of symptoms. Callers reached 94% of cases and 84% of contacts. Seventy-four percent of cases reported at least one contact. Household members had higher rates of reporting symptoms (odds ratio, 1.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-2.28). The average test turnaround time decreased from 21.8 days for the first patients of this program to 2.3 days on the eleventh week.CONCLUSIONS:
This provides evidence for the untapped potential of community contact tracing to respond to regional needs, confront barriers to effective quarantine, and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Students
/
Contact Tracing
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Ann Epidemiol
Journal subject:
Epidemiology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS