NPR

How Do You Do Contact Tracing? Poor Countries Have Plenty Of Advice

As parts of the U.S. aim to move out of lockdown, a key tool to contain coronavirus cases will be contact tracing. It's something health workers in low-income countries have lots of experience with.
The job of contact tracing can involve detective work. A hand-drawn map on the wall of a rural clinic shows health workers how to get to a remote village where a woman with Ebola may be hiding.

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, says contact tracing will be vital in the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Poor countries have advice to offer.

Contact tracing is used all over the world, including in the U.S. The idea is to track down anyone in recent contact with a newly diagnosed patient, then monitor the health of these contacts. In the developing world, it's been a valuable tool in fighting infectious diseases like Ebola and tuberculosis. Public health workers there have lots of experience.

So as the

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