Contact Tracing

In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to an infected person, called contacts, and collecting further data to assess transmission; by tracing the contacts of infected individuals, testing them and isolating or treating those found infected, the tool aims to reduce infections across a population. Beyond infection control, contact tracing identifies high-risk and medically vulnerable people who might be exposed, supports disease surveillance, and helps learn about a disease characteristics, including its infectiousness, in cases of uncertain infectious potential; it is not always the most efficient method, and in areas of high disease prevalence, broader screening or focused testing can be more cost-effective. Its goals include interrupting ongoing transmission, alerting contacts to the possibility of infection and offering preventive or prophylactic care, alerting the public about outbreaks, offering diagnosis, counseling and treatment to those already infected, and learning about a disease epidemiology within a particular population.