Contact tracing as a measure to combat COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
Am J Infect Control
; 50(6): 638-644, 2022 06.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1616341
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Most of the mathematical modeling studies on COVID-19 transmission are based on continuous deterministic models that do not consider the characteristics of social networks.METHODS:
The effect of contact tracing on mitigating COVID-19, and other infectious diseases in general, is studied in a small-world network. This network has its advantages over the commonly used continuous deterministic mathematical models in that the characteristics of social networks can be properly incorporated.RESULTS:
Simulation results show that for the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, contact tracing can play an important role in reducing and delaying the peak daily new cases. New cases can be reduced by using symptom onset to isolate tracked individuals, but the benefit can be greatly enhanced by testing asymptomatic and presymptomatic individuals on the sixth to eighth day of infection. For the delta variant, or other variants of much higher infectivity, contact tracing alone cannot significantly lower the number of daily new cases but is able to delay the peaks greatly, thus affording more time to explore and implement pharmaceutical interventions.CONCLUSIONS:
Contact tracing can be a very powerful tool to combat COVID-19 caused by the original strain or any variant of SARS-CoV-2. In order to make contact tracing effective, every effort is needed to expand the pool of contact tracing and provide all necessary support to the self-quarantined.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Communicable Diseases
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Am J Infect Control
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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