Image from: https://dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/cdepi/diseases/coronavirusmt
This course had a mixture of videos, readings, and practice exercises. It taught the basics of COVID-19. It discussed where it emerged from, who is at risk, common and severe signs and symptoms, transmission, infectious period, testing, and contact tracing. The course taught skills on how to effectively communicate by using questions, such as, being open-ended, closed-ended, leading, or probing. It taught when patients should isolate or quarantine till. The course stated that according to the CDC if someone is infected, they should be in isolation for at least 10 days if they’re not showing signs or symptoms and they haven’t taken medicine in the past 24 hours to treat their fever. As learned from evidence-based practice, last semester, guidelines can undergo changes depending on what new evidence suggests.
Some of the common barriers to contact tracing is testing. COVID-19 is highly transmissible and can spread quickly if not caught soon enough. There are technological tools out there that would notify other people if they were exposed to someone with COVID, but both individuals would need to have the app. Due to privacy concerns, many people don’t download it. Some other concerns are long incubation periods and some individuals being asymptomatic. With understanding incubation period, infectious period, isolation, and quarantine I’m better equipped with understanding infectious diseases. This contact tracing course was tailored towards COVID-19, but I feel as though many of the concepts can be applied to current diseases and other illnesses in the future.
Munib, what are some ethical considerations around contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine? You described some of the common barriers to contact tracing efforts. What are some strategies to overcome them?
Dr. Kramlich, some ethical considerations are a violation of HIPPA. If you’re contact tracing, then those around you can find out who the carrier was. The carrier’s name would never explicitly be given, but it can be inferred.
Another common barrier to contact tracing is not remembering who you were with and where you were. A strategy can be to ask the patient to look at their calendars or messages to see if they can figure it out. If an individual is caught up at a gathering, it may be more difficult because they may not know the names of those around them.