Addressing contact tracing challenges—critical to halting Ebola virus disease transmission

Greiner, Ashley; Angelo, Kristina M.; McCollum, Andrea M.; Mirkovic, Kelsey; Arthur, Ray R.; Angulo, Frederick J.

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2015.10.025

Cited by 52 publications

(56 citation statements)

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“…To identify and register contacts of persons infected with EVD, prefecture public health officials and ETU staff interviewed case-patients, their families, and community members and documented resulting information on standardized contact registration forms ( 6 ). A contact is defined as someone at risk for infection with EVD because he or she has slept in the same household as a confirmed or probable EVD case-patient, had direct physical contact with the case-patient during that person’s illness, had direct physical contact with the body of a case-patient at a funeral or during burial preparation, touched the body fluids of a case-patient during illness, touched the case-patient’s clothes or linens, or is an infant breastfed by the case-patient ( 6 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A contact is defined as someone at risk for infection with EVD because he or she has slept in the same household as a confirmed or probable EVD case-patient, had direct physical contact with the case-patient during that person’s illness, had direct physical contact with the body of a case-patient at a funeral or during burial preparation, touched the body fluids of a case-patient during illness, touched the case-patient’s clothes or linens, or is an infant breastfed by the case-patient ( 6 ). Demographic data of contacts (name, age, sex, relationship to the presumed source case-patient, and prefecture and subprefecture of residence) and daily follow-up data (presence or absence of symptoms) were obtained through use of standardized contact tracing forms ( 6 ), which populated a prefecture contact database.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014

Dixon¹,

Taylor²,

Dee³

et al. 2015

Emerg. Infect. Dis.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014

Dixon¹,

Taylor²,

Dee³

et al. 2015

Emerg. Infect. Dis.

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“…The ability to identify, and subsequently interrupt, chains of transmission is crucial to the success of containment efforts, and the success of contact tracing is, like all Ebola interventions, determined by the extent to which communities trust and give accurate information to those attempting to curb the outbreak [123]. …”

Section: Outbreak: Propagation and Failure To Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics

Coltart¹,

Lindsey

Ghinai³

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

376

291

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Ebola virus causes a severe haemorrhagic fever in humans with high case fatality and significant epidemic potential. The 2013–2016 outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in scale, being larger than all previous outbreaks combined, with 28 646 reported cases and 11 323 reported deaths. It was also unique in its geographical distribution and multicountry spread. It is vital that the lessons learned from the world's largest Ebola outbreak are not lost. This article aims to provide a detailed description of the evolution of the outbreak. We contextualize this outbreak in relation to previous Ebola outbreaks and outline the theories regarding its origins and emergence. The outbreak is described by country, in chronological order, including epidemiological parameters and implementation of outbreak containment strategies. We then summarize the factors that led to rapid and extensive propagation, as well as highlight the key successes, failures and lessons learned from this outbreak and the response.This article is part of the themed issue ‘The 2013–2016 West African Ebola epidemic: data, decision-making and disease control’.

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“…These measures focus on the early detection of cases and the comprehensive follow-up of contacts [11]. Efforts to find missing and unknown contacts are critical, but they were often hampered by a widespread distrust of health authorities in communities [12, 13].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned by surveillance during the tail-end of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, June-October 2015: a case series

Keïta¹,

Conté

Diallo³

et al. 2017

BMC Infect Dis

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BackgroundBy the end of the 2013–2016 West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks, a total of 3814 cases (probable and confirmed) and 2544 deaths were reported in Guinea. Clearly, surveillance activities aiming at stopping human-to-human transmission have been the breakthrough of EVD outbreak management, but their application has been at times easier said than done. This article presents five confirmed or probable EVD cases that arose in Conakry towards the end of the Guinea epidemic, which demonstrate flaws in surveillance and follow-up.Case presentationFor case 1, safe burial requirements were not followed. For cases 1 and 2, negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) results were interpreted as no infection. For the first case, the sample may have not been taken properly while for the second the disease was possibly at its early stage. Case 3 was stopped at a border health checkpoint and despite her high temperature she was allowed to continue the bus journey. For case 4, an oral swab sample was supposedly taken after death but could not be found for retrospective testing. Despite characteristic symptomatology, case 5 was not identified as a suspect case for as long as 3 weeks.ConclusionIn epidemic contexts, health systems must be able to track all samples of suspect cases and deaths, regardless of their laboratory results. Social mobilization in communities and training in health care facilities must be strengthened at the tail of an outbreak, to avoid the natural slackening of disease surveillance, in particular for long-lasting and deadly epidemics.

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Addressing contact tracing challenges—critical to halting Ebola virus disease transmission

Abstract: Addressing challenges to contact tracing implementation and management in the West African EVD outbreak is essential to stopping ongoing transmission.

Cited by 52 publications

References 1 publication

Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014

Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014

The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics

Lessons learned by surveillance during the tail-end of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, June-October 2015: a case series

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