UNSPECIFIED. (2003) Contact tracing and disease control. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 270 (1533). pp. 2565-2571. ISSN 0962-8452

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Abstract

Contact tracing, followed by treatment or isolation, is a key control measure in the battle against infectious diseases. It is an extreme form of locally targeted control, and as such has the potential to be highly efficient when dealing with low numbers of cases. For this reason it is frequently used to combat sexually transmitted diseases and new invading pathogens. Accurate modelling of contact tracing requires explicit information about the disease-transmission pathways from each individual, and hence the network of contacts. Here, pairwise-approximation methods and full stochastic simulations are used to investigate the utility of contact tracing. A simple relationship is found between the efficiency of contact tracing necessary for eradication and the basic reproductive ratio of the disease. This holds for a wide variety of realistic situations including heterogeneous networks containing core-groups or super-spreaders, and asymptomatic individuals. Clustering (transitivity) within the transmission network is found to destroy the relationship, requiring lower efficiency than predicted.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Journal or Publication Title:	PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SERIES B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Publisher:	ROYAL SOC LONDON
ISSN:	0962-8452
Date:	22 December 2003
Volume:	270
Number:	1533
Number of Pages:	7
Page Range:	pp. 2565-2571
Identification Number:	10.1098/rspb.2003.2554
Publication Status:	Published
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/8891

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