What Is Contact Tracing? Here’s How It Could Be Used to Help Fight Coronavirus
April 22, 2020 / BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA
In the coronavirus era, a host of epidemiological terms have entered common public use. There’s the now-ubiquitous “social distancing,” and the newly politicized “flatten the curve.” And as states and local governments seek a way out of lockdowns that have brought their economies to a near-standstill, “contact tracing” has made its way into everyday conversation as well.
But what exactly is contact tracing, and how can it help society battle the COVID-19 epidemic? Here, the basics of the time-tested public health strategy, and the hopes for its use in the coronavirus pandemic:
What is contact tracing?
Contact tracing is a little like detective work: Trained staff interview people who have been diagnosed with a contagious disease to figure out who they may have recently been in contact with. Then, they go tell those people they may have been exposed, sometimes encouraging them to quarantine themselves to prevent spreading the disease any further. Think of it as part public health work, and part investigation.
The technique is a “cornerstone” of preventative medicine, says Dr. Laura Breeher, medical director of occupational health services at the Mayo Clinic. “Contact tracing, it’s having a moment of glory right now with COVID because of the crucial importance of identifying those individuals who have been exposed quickly and isolating or quarantining them,” she says.
Contact tracing was used during the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak, as well as in the SARS outbreak in 2003. It’s also used to combat sexually transmitted infections and other communicable diseases like tuberculosis. And as COVID-19 has gone global, countries like South Korea and New Zealand have aggressively used contact tracing in an attempt to control outbreaks.
