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Detection Assays and Techniques Against COVID-19
Published in Hanadi Talal Ahmedah, Muhammad Riaz, Sagheer Ahmed, Marius Alexandru Moga, The Covid-19 Pandemic, 2023
Shahzad Sharif, Maham Saeed, Javed Hussain Shah, Sajjad Hussain, Ahmad Adnan, Hanadi Talal Ahmedah, Muhammad Riaz
Contact tracing is a procedure of identifying, analyzing, and managing individuals who have encountered an infectious disease to restrict the further spread of disease. If implemented gradually, contact tracing can break the strings of the prevalence of infection and hence, is an important public health measure for monitoring infectious disease outbursts. Contact tracing for coronavirus disease needs tracing people who might have encountered COVID-19 and monitoring them regularly for 2 weeks (14 days) from the last day of the encounter.
Machine learning and public health
Published in Sridhar Venkatapuram, Alex Broadbent, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Public Health, 2023
The other example is an algorithm used for digital contact tracing, developed by Yoshua Bengio et al. (2020). In principle, what the authors did was to train an algorithm to estimate an individual’s infectiousness for Covid-19 and to provide a graded risk estimate to other people who have been in contact with that individual. To this end, the algorithm uses a large set of features, potentially available on a smartphone, including an individual’s symptoms, preexisting conditions, age, and lifestyle choices. Again, while contact tracing apps have been commonly used by many countries during the pandemic, the algorithm poses an advancement over existing technologies. First, most contact tracing apps model infections as a binary event: if an individual has been infected, it is being recommended to send all his contacts to quarantine. By contrast, Bengio et al.’s algorithm makes probabilistic estimates—enabling more fine-grained recommendations. Moreover, the algorithm also includes privacy-preserving tools, trying to protect the data of individuals from central authorities, who could abuse the relevant information.
The COVID-19 pandemic and development of drugs and vaccinations
Published in Edward M. Rafalski, Ross M. Mullner, Healthcare Analytics, 2022
Contact tracing is used to quickly identify individuals who have been exposed to infectious disease (COVID-19, measles, Ebola, TB, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)) and alert their contacts of their potential exposure7. The goal of contact tracing is to help prevent the further spread of infection, to identify hotspots of infection, and to protect friends, families, and communities from potential infection. The Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of the individuals who test positive (+) are kept confidential as per the guidelines under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The public health staff works with the individuals who are tested positive to help identify all those who came in contact with them while they were infectious so that the exposed individuals could be alerted via phone and directed to appropriate medical facilities for getting tested. The individuals would be instructed to self-quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease and follow appropriate social distancing practices. The individuals would be asked to check their temperature twice daily and monitor for symptoms and schedule a COVID-19 test before the end of their quarantine period.
Health Equity and the Public Health Code of Ethics: Rebuilding Trust from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2021
One real-world and highly relevant example of how the code of ethics can address a pressing public health problem is on the issue of contact tracing, politicization and public trust. Contact tracing is a central tool in disease investigation and containment, and public health workers have a long history of wielding the method to stop dangerous outbreaks. Seasoned tracers know much of their effectiveness is rooted in respectfully acknowledging people’s fears about sharing personal information with government workers, while engaging people as partners in stopping further disease transmission. Inherent to every step in that process is some sense of trust—an unspoken social contract that people’s privacy will be respected and their cooperation will be used for the greater community good.
News Briefs
Published in Journal of Community Health Nursing, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released an Interim COVID-19 Communications Toolkit for Health Departments on June 3, 2020. The CDC Toolkit is designed to support the efforts of health departments in slowing the spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing and self-quarantining of people with Covid-19 and their close contacts are essential to slowing the spread of COVID-19, according to the CDC. The Communications Tool-kit includes sample marketing messages and talking points for use with all people and with individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and their close contacts. Messages for use with COVID-19 contacts include: (a) information about the importance of self-quarantining, (b) how to self-quarantine and why, and (c) key actions for a person who is quarantined to take if they experience symptoms of COVID-19. Also included in the Toolkit are sample public service announcements, sample social media posts for Twitter and Facebook, and additional resources such as handouts on key subjects. The CDC Interim COVID-19 Contact Tracing Communications Toolkit for Health Departments was retrieved 4 June 2020 at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracingcomms.html?deliveryName=USCDC_2067-DM29945.
Epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentations, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19: a review of current evidence
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2021
Sayeeda Rahman, Maria Teresa Villagomez Montero, Kherie Rowe, Rita Kirton, Frank Kunik
When it comes to global pandemics such as COVID-19, there are numerous issues in medical ethics that must be addressed and adhered to in order to ameliorate the human condition [252,253]. One of the most important issues to consider is patient confidentiality [254]. While confidentiality must be maintained between physicians and patients during standard medical care, when it comes to the treatment of a patient diagnosed with COVID-19, an exception has to be made. Since COVID-19 is considered a reportable illness, the type of illness that poses a threat to another person, doctors must follow Tarasoff’s Law of duty to warn and protect [255]. In other words, physicians are required to report quarantine and follow-up contact tracing [256].