Contact tracing has become a vital tool for public health officials to effectively combat the spread of new diseases, such as the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Contact tracing is not new to epidemiologist rather, it used manual or semi-manual approaches that are incredibly time-consuming, costly and inefficient. It mostly relies on human memory while scalability is a significant challenge in tackling pandemics. The unprecedented health and socio-economic impacts led researchers and practitioners around the world to search for technology-based approaches for providing scalable and timely answers. Smartphones and associated digital technologies have the potential to provide a better approach due to their high level of penetration, coupled with mobility. While data-driven solutions are extremely powerful, the fear among citizens is that information like location or proximity associated with other personal data can be weaponised by the states to enforce surveillance. Low adoption rate of such apps due to the lack of trust questioned the efficacy and demanded researchers to find innovative solution for building digital-trust, and appropriately balancing privacy and accuracy of data. In this paper, we have critically reviewed such protocols and apps to identify the strength and weakness of each approach. Finally, we have penned down our recommendations to make the future contact tracing mechanisms more universally inter-operable and privacy-preserving.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3036718 | DOI Listing |
Int 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.
Sci Adv
January 2025
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Oxygen controls most metazoan metabolism, yet in mammals, tissue O levels vary widely. While extensive research has explored cellular responses to hypoxia, understanding how cells respond to physiologically high O levels remains uncertain. To address this problem, we investigated respiratory epithelia as their contact with air exposes them to some of the highest O levels in the body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndian Dermatol Online J
December 2024
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Introduction: The incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has increased disproportionately to STI services. It is uncertain how many residents trained in STI services continue them. This study assessed the self-rated quality of training and attitudes about STI services amongst residents of Indian teaching hospitals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEuro Surveill
January 2025
Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
This case report details the public health response to a multibacillary leprosy case in Ireland. The case presented with hypopigmented skin lesions and neurological symptoms. Challenges included delayed recognition in the clinical setting, contact tracing within a congregate setting and lack of specific Irish guidelines.
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