WHO View on contact tracing

[Amity Island]

Table 1 page 9 (3) in WHO's Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza published in 2019.

WHO do not recommend "contact tracing" in any circumstances in a pandemic or epidemic.

It does however recommend:

Hand hygiene, Respiratory etiquette, Face masks for symptomatic individuals, Surface and object cleaning, Increased ventilation, Isolation of sick individuals and Travel advice for any pandemic. Plus other measures for severe oubreaks.

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329438/9789241516839-eng.pdf#page=9

 

[Bruce Stephens]

See also https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/training/contact-tracing/en/ and https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/contact-tracing-in-the-context-of-covid-19

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Interesting that your links are newer Bruce. (May 2020)

Overview: “When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of an infectious disease and is thus an essential public health tool for controlling infectious disease outbreaks. This document provides guidance on how to establish contact tracing capacity for the control of COVID-19“

So a change of heart?

Or differences between advice for Influenza and advice for Covid19?

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Or differences between advice for Influenza and advice for Covid19?

That would be my guess.

I think that's been the suggestion for why we were slow to do it: our groups were thinking pandemic influenza and contact tracing is thought not to work well for that (and more generally, I think, was thought not to be so good for respiratory infections). I seem to remember people being surprised that contact tracing seemed to work in some of the countries that had dealt with SARS.

 

[Eddy Edson]

That would be my guess.

I think that's been the suggestion for why we were slow to do it: our groups were thinking pandemic influenza and contact tracing is thought not to work well for that (and more generally, I think, was thought not to be so good for respiratory infections). I seem to remember people being surprised that contact tracing seemed to work in some of the countries that had dealt with SARS.

Yup. And border restrictions, and distancing to some extent. In the early days people were working off flu models. But given what's happened with flu in Oz & elsewhere, maybe the models need updating for flu also.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

But given what's happened with flu in Oz & elsewhere, maybe the models need updating for flu also.

Closing borders for flu doesn't seem likely to catch on. If it turns out that in the UK we get a much reduced flu season (and so far it looks mild rather than dramatically lower) I could see mask wearing and a bit of physical distancing being encouraged over future winters just to reduce flu. (Not saying it would actually happen, but I could imagine serious efforts at trying to make it the norm as it is in Japan.)

 

[Amity Island]

Interesting that your links are newer Bruce. (May 2020)

Overview: “When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of an infectious disease and is thus an essential public health tool for controlling infectious disease outbreaks. This document provides guidance on how to establish contact tracing capacity for the control of COVID-19“

So a change of heart?

Or differences between advice for Influenza and advice for Covid19?

Hi Mike,

I was thinking just the same thing!

One of the things I have found as a possible reason for treating the transmission of sars-cov2 differently from say, a new strain of a deadly flu pandemic is according to World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

sarscov2 "it can be contained" whereas flu can't.

In the same token, the WHO don't recommend lockdown's as a primary method of dealing with the virus.

WHO: Coronavirus is different from influenza, and that means it can be contained

WHO officials are pushing the message that while seasonal flu cannot be stopped, countries still have the chance to limit cases of the new #coronavirus, #Covid19.

www.statnews.com

 

[Eddy Edson]

Closing borders for flu doesn't seem likely to catch on. If it turns out that in the UK we get a much reduced flu season (and so far it looks mild rather than dramatically lower) I could see mask wearing and a bit of physical distancing being encouraged over future winters just to reduce flu. (Not saying it would actually happen, but I could imagine serious efforts at trying to make it the norm as it is in Japan.)

Sure, no doubt border closing for flu is a step too far in practice, but the models as I understand things asssumed or purported to demonstrate that it wouldn't *work*, regardless, and that probably needs adjustment.

And it's a bit interesting to think about what international borders will look like in the future. Obviously this is being discussed in Oz - what happens when the borders re-open & how do we do it, assuming that vaccines aren't going to be a complete silver bullet any time very soon. Whatever the outcome, very likely it will involve some form of more or less rigorous testing at the border, which maybe becomes the long-term norm. Maybe flu gets included in that ...