As the world struggles with the new COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing apps of various types have been adopted in many jurisdictions for combating the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, even if they are successful in containing the virus within national borders, these apps are becoming ineffective as international travel is gradually resumed. The problem rests in the plurality of apps and their inability to operate in a synchronized manner, as well as the absence of an international entity with the power to coordinate and analyze the information collected by the disparate apps. The risk of creating a useless Tower of Babel of COVID-19 contact tracing apps is very real, endangering global health. This paper analyzes legal barriers for realizing the interoperability of contact tracing apps and emphasizes the need for developing coordinated solutions to promote safe international travel and global pandemic control.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/23194 | DOI Listing |
Front Neurosci
January 2025
Michael Sars Centre, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Comparative studies on the development of nervous systems have a significant impact on understanding animal nervous system evolution. Nevertheless, an important question is to what degree neuronal structures, which play an important role in early stages, become part of the adult nervous system or are relevant for its formation. This is likely in many direct developers, but it is not the case in forms with catastrophic metamorphosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In high-burden settings, most tuberculosis (TB) transmission likely occurs outside the home. Our qualitative study in Zambia explored the acceptability and preferences for designing TB active case finding (ACF) strategies to reach non-household contacts of people with TB.
Methods: We conducted 56 in-depth interviews with persons with TB ( = 12), TB healthcare workers (HCWs) ( = 10), TB lay HCWs ( = 10), and leaders/owners ( = 12) and attendees ( = 12) of community venue types identified as potential TB transmission locations.
BMC Health Serv Res
January 2025
Sydani Initiative for International Development, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.
Background: Evidence from literature has established that tracing lost to follow-up clients is an effective strategy for complementing other mechanisms for infectious disease control like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, and other diseases such as Ebola. As a long-standing successful public health method of optimizing acceptance and/or adherence to infectious disease treatment tracing lost to follow-up clients is usually carried out by manually investigating individuals who absconded or are absent from treatments designed to manage and/or promote their health status. This study seeks to explore the role of mobile teams in tracing clients lost to follow-up for immunization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
December 2024
Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C9, Canada.
We engaged with health sector stakeholders and public health professionals within the health system through a participatory modeling approach to support policy-making in the early COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan, Canada. The objective was to use simulation modeling to guide the implementation of public health measures and short-term hospital capacity planning to mitigate the disease burden from March to June 2020. We developed a hybrid simulation model combining System Dynamics (SD), discrete-event simulation (DES), and agent-based modeling (ABM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMJ Open
January 2025
Department of Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan Aman, Ethiopia.
Objective: To synthesise the role of digital technologies in epidemic control and prevention, focussing on Ebola and COVID-19.
Design: A scoping review.
Data Sources: A systematic search was done on PubMed, HINARI, Web of Science, Google Scholar and a direct Google search until 10 September 2024.
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