What you need to know
Contact tracing is the process of identifying those who may have come into contact with an infected person. Careful monitoring of these persons under investigation (PUI) serves both to help alert these individuals to the health risks they face and to limit the spread and possible new outbreaks of the infection.
The right tool for the job
ClientTrack’s Contact Tracing Tool will help expand the reach and efficacy of contact tracers, contributing to a simpler, more manageable process.
Contact Tracing in 3 basic steps
- Contact identification: Once someone is confirmed as infected with a virus, contacts are identified by asking about the person’s activities and the activities and roles of the people around them since the onset of the illness. Contacts can be anyone who has been in contact with an infected person, including family members, work colleagues, friends, or health care providers.
- Contact listing: All persons considered to have contact with the infected person should be listed as contacts. Efforts should be made to identify every listed contact and to inform them of their contact status, what it means, the actions that will follow, and the importance of receiving early care if they develop symptoms. Contacts should also be provided with information about prevention of the disease. In some cases, quarantine or isolation is required for high-risk contacts, either at home, or in hospital.
- Contact follow-up: Regular follow-up should be conducted with all contacts to monitor for symptoms and test for signs of infection.
Contact tracing is a core disease control measure that has been employed by local and state health department personnel for decades, and it is a key strategy for preventing the further spread or recurrence of COVID-19.
Meeting CDC standards
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently released new criteria for digital contact tracing tools for COVID-19.
Certain core principles of contact tracing must always be adhered to:
- In contact tracing, public health staff work with a patient to help them recall everyone with whom they have had close contact during the timeframe while they may have been infectious.
- Public health staff then warn these exposed individuals (contacts) of their potential exposure as rapidly and sensitively as possible.
- To protect patient privacy, contacts are only informed that they may have been exposed to a patient with the infection. They are not told the identity of the patient who may have exposed them.
- Contacts are provided with education, information, and support to understand their risk, what they should do to separate themselves from others who are not exposed, monitor themselves for illness, and the possibility that they could spread the infection to others even if they themselves do not feel ill.
- Contacts are encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance from others (at least 6 feet) until 14 days after their last exposure in case they also become ill. They should monitor themselves by checking their temperature twice daily and watching for cough or shortness of breath. To the extent possible, public health staff should check in with contacts to make sure they are self-monitoring and have not developed symptoms. Contacts who develop symptoms should promptly isolate themselves and notify public health staff. They should be promptly evaluated for infection and for the need for medical care.
Contact tracing tools must anticipate a collaborative system with a shared central database involving three primary group functions, including:
1) Contact Tracing Workflow (includes preliminary screening)
2) Laboratory Collaboration
3) Case Investigation Team
ClientTrack’s Contact Tracing Tool empowers users to meet these requirements and collaborate with the organizations and teams necessary to effectively prevent further spread and new breakouts of dangerous viruses like COVID-19, and can facilitate efforts to flatten and drop the curve of new infections and deaths.
