We begin to know the song: when we are diagnosed “positive” for Covid-19 (after a PCR test, for example), the Health Insurance identifies our “contact cases” so that they are isolated and then tested in turn. A search made easier by downloading the Tous AntiCovid application. The objective of this method: to limit the transmission of the virus by isolating as early as possible people potentially infected with the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus.
It is therefore a question of identifying contact cases downstream of the contamination.
Adopted by France but also by other European countries (such as Germany, Ireland or the United Kingdom), this strategy is not however the only one: thus, many countries Asians (such as Japan or South Korea) have bet on the “retrospective tracing“. And France is (finally) coming there too!
Backward tracing: what is it exactly?
The objective of retrospective tracing is not (only) to identify the “contact cases” of the infected patient: this strategy consists rather of identify contact cases upstream of contamination, even the origins of the contamination until “patient zero”, whoever is responsible for the contamination of the person concerned.
“It’s a bit like looking for ascendants instead of looking for descendants, had explained the epidemiologist Catherine Hill to our colleagues ofEurope 1. It is remarkably done in South Korea, but they did it right and they tested it tremendously.“
The reverse tracing method had been used in France in February 2020, when 12 cases of Covid-19 had been recorded in the department of ‘Oise. The “patient zero” had not, however, been identified with certainty.
Generalization of retrotracing throughout France on July 1
Experienced in France in two departments (Côte-dâ ???? Or and Loire-Atlantique) since March 25, backtrotracing is gradually extending to there. the entire French territory, indicated the Health Insurance on June 17. In detail, “60 departments and 12 ARS are deploying it from mid-June, and it will be generalized throughout France from July 1,” the press release said. © press.
The idea is not to abandon “classic” tracing, but to provide a complementary tool to identify contact cases at the origin of the contamination. By extension, retrospective tracing makes it possible to identify the important places of contamination – school, office … or one-off or unusual situations, in which a person who subsequently became positive could have infected other people. Retro-tracing makes it possible in particular to better document thehe risky situations of “super-contamination” by identifying events or gatherings in which several people were infected.
Retro-tracing, instructions for use
Concretely, after having listed the patient’s contact cases (for example, the people with whom he lives on a daily basis or his office colleagues frequented on site), the Health Insurance investigator asks him to find out if he has any information on the place or the event (with at least 10 people present, without respecting barrier gestures) where he could have contracted Covid-19 and people who would also have been exposed to the risk of contamination.
If necessary, the investigator then conducts an interview specifically dedicated to backtracking. The people having shared the same event or the same place of contamination simultaneously are then defined as co-exhibited and are in turn plotted, tested and isolated.
As is already the case within the framework of the contact tracing currently practiced, the Health Insurance is brought to coordinate with the Regional Health Agency of the territory concerned so that it can take over from investigations when it comes to complex situations or large-scale contaminations. This is the case, for example, if a third party holding the list of participants in the event is not identifiable / reachable, or if the patient cannot be reached. ro frequented a so-called “sensitive” community such as an Ehpad, a health or medico-social establishment, a penitentiary establishmentâ ?? ¦
What efficiency?
The first results from the pilot study carried out in Côte-d’Or and Loire-Atlantique are positive: they show that Almost 10% of the zero patients contacted by Assurance Maladie were able to identify an event deemed to be there. origin of their contamination (family reunion, party with friends, educational outing, sporting event …), giving rise to the identification of co-exposed people (excluding contamination within the home). In the days following their isolation, nearly 10% of these co-exposed people have also become positive, underlines the Health Insurance.
With a vaccine coverage that continues to improve (25.4% of the French population completed their vaccination cycle on June 16) and a lower circulation of the virus, the conditions are met for à Extend the practice of retrotracing throughout the country, say the health authorities. And for good reason, according to epidemiologists, for this type of investigation to be effective, the level of circulation of the virus must be low or moderate (less than 5,000 new cases per day), because the interview times are longer (40 minutes on average for the zero patient call). And so that the tracers of the Health Insurance and the ARS are reactive (therefore that the isolation measures are quickly decided), it is necessary that the deadlines for obtaining the results of the tests are also very fast.
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