Meet the “Contact Tracer”: A Group of Workers Essential to Prevent Coronavirus Recurrence in Louisiana | Coronavirus

State and local health departments know who to call when a strange new virus begins to spread throughout the community: a contact tracer.

They are men and women who closely track friends, family and colleagues of infected people, warn them that they are at risk and encourage them to be quarantined.

It was already too late when a new coronavirus was detected in Louisiana in early March. According to experts, the virus was so prevalent that it could not find and quarantine all potentially infected people.

Although Louisiana still records dozens of deaths from coronaviruses every day, there are some promising signs, including lower hospitalization rates. When the Governor of Louisiana John Bell Edwards and other leaders are planning a moment when they can resume their economy, they rely on a huge new army of contact tracers to crush future outbreaks. maybe. The state of Louisiana has not announced the plan, but public health experts say it could require up to 100,000 contact tracers across the country to prevent COVID-19.

While more attention has been paid to the lack of extensive and timely testing, epidemiologists have supplemented testing with contact tracking to prevent future coronavirus sparks from turning into forest fires. Says you need to.

Gavin Yamei, Global Health Professor at Duke University, said: “If we take our feet off the gas, get quick results to test people and quarantine people, and we don’t have a really good ability to do contact tracking, then this brings us back to revenge. . “

Tracking contacts is a tedious and time consuming task. The tracer will interview the infected people, come up with a list of all the people they were in contact with when they were infected, and try to gather details such as how long they were in contact and how closely they were in contact.

Contact tracking has recently been used in Louisiana to stop the spread of infections such as syphilis. Health officials track sexual partners in patients with syphilis and encourage them to seek treatment.

According to Josh Misha, Associate Director of Kaiser Family Foundation’s Global Health Policy, the next important step for coronaviruses is to encourage those who come in contact with the carrier to self-quarantine or seek medical assistance as needed. .

“It’s been used by the public health sector for over 100 years,” he said. “The idea behind it is that if we can identify most or all of the people with a particular disease, we can remove them from the circulation and prevent them from continuing the chain of infection.”

However, the unique nature of the new coronavirus making it highly contagious also makes it difficult to track down. Infected people can spread the infection before they begin to develop symptoms, and there are days when they are unknowingly infected with the virus.

South Korea and Singapore have used high-tech tools such as cell phone data and surveillance footage to assist contact tracers and effectively trap coronaviruses in their buds.

However, like many other states, Louisiana seems to have been slammed and contact tracking seems to be ineffective immediately.

After the first case of coronavirus was confirmed on March 9, the state attempted “weeks” of wholesale contact tracking.

“They were very busy, because basically, at that point, for every confirmed case, we needed to go back 14 days to see how they exposed other people. That’s why, ”she said. “It’s been a long time, and at that point everything was more or less” normal, “potentially exposing many potentially infected people. “

By the end of March, coronaviruses had become very widespread in New Orleans, and authorities narrowed their contact traces in metropolitan areas to focus on vulnerable groups. Straif-Bourgeois said the nation was right to change its tactics at the time. The problem at that time was so great that only dull tools like homestays worked.

“Contact tracking is particularly effective when there are few cases that are particularly effective early in the epidemic, and we can be sure that we have identified most cases,” Mishaw said. But when the number of cases is growing exponentially, contact tracers can only stop “slivers” in the transmission chain, he added.

Nevertheless, the Louisiana Department of Health said it was investigating individual cases and conducting contact tracing everywhere outside the New Orleans area.

There are about 30 infectious disease epidemiologists in the state. Approximately 75 employees of the Louisiana Department of Health, including public health nurses and epidemiologists in other programs, have been redirected to case studies and contact tracking, said Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the department.

Local authorities have provided as much support as possible, but limited resources have been overwhelmed by the high tide of the coronavirus incident.

The New Orleans Health Department, where possible, helps track state contacts, according to a city hall spokesman.

“We’re looking at ways to increase contact tracking over the next few weeks as new cases are falling, and we’ll ease our current mission,” said spokesman Trey Caruso. “We are currently discussing ways to involve healthcare professionals, Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, and community partners in these efforts.”

Orleans is the only parish with its own health department. In the Jefferson Parish, which had the second-highest Covid-19 deaths by Friday, all contact tracking is handled by the state.

In the future, the State Department of Health said it plans to adapt its contact-tracking tactics as the coronavirus curve hopefully keeps calming.

“We are looking at the roles of both working and private partners to work together to expand contact tracking capabilities to the level needed to contain future outbreaks,” said Neil.

Rebeka Zee, former Secretary of Health under Governor Edwards, said medical students and other volunteers could help.

“There are really dedicated people in the Louisiana Department of Public Health, but there are too few people with infectious diseases,” said Susan Hassig, epidemiology professor at Tulane University. “They work really hard, but they seem to be swimming in the Niagara Falls.”

In other states, volunteers, retrained civil servants, and new employees rely on contact tracking. Massachusetts employs 1,000 contact tracers in partnership with Partners in Health, a non-profit organization well known for its work in Haiti. Utah is retraining hundreds of state workers.

The Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention is also planning to increase its army of contact tracers, but the agency has not yet provided details. On the other hand, technology giants like Apple and Google are teaming to develop an app with the goal of alerting users when they come in contact with infected people, but while protecting privacy. I’m trying

Health and Safety and Provincial and Territory Health Officials at Johns Hopkins Center Employ Federal Government Directly to Local Ministry of Health already in Frontline in Fighting Coronavirus, April 10 Report I asked you to.

According to the report, many state and local public health departments saw cuts during the last recession. Authorities have asked the federal government to devote $ 3.6 billion to the state to hire 100,000 contact tracers for $ 17 an hour.

“This is a win-win situation,” said Marcus Prescia, Chief Medical Officer of State and Territory Health Authorities. “People need jobs. This is a job that allows us to train people so quickly that we can hire them again.”

Staff writer Brinstall contributed to this report.