Contact tracing using provider referral: how difficult is it?
Contact tracing using provider referral is often perceived as time-consuming. To assess the workload involved in provider referral at a sexual health clinic, we studied the number of attempts required, the contact method used, the time taken and the success of provider referral for 230 contacts referred over a 3-year period. For 87% of these contacts, a mobile number was available; 78.7% of these were successfully contacted. A median of two calls was required and the median time to complete the contact tracing process was within the same day. In 91% of cases, contact tracing was successful. In our setting, provider notification was not time-consuming.
Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney/Sydney Eye Hospital, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
Lisa
L
McCann
Warwick
W
Allan
Phillip
P
Read
Anna
A
McNulty
D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*