Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014.
The largest recorded Ebola virus disease epidemic began in March 2014; as of July 2015, it continued in 3 principally affected countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Control efforts include contact tracing to expedite identification of the virus in suspect case-patients. We examined contact tracing activities during September 20-December 31, 2014, in 2 prefectures of Guinea using national and local data about case-patients and their contacts. Results show less than one third of case-patients (28.3% and 31.1%) were registered as contacts before case identification; approximately two thirds (61.1% and 67.7%) had no registered contacts. Time to isolation of suspected case-patients was not immediate (median 5 and 3 days for Kindia and Faranah, respectively), and secondary attack rates varied by relationships of persons who had contact with the source case-patient and the type of case-patient to which a contact was exposed. More complete contact tracing efforts are needed to augment control of this epidemic.
Meredith G
MG
Dixon
Melanie M
MM
Taylor
Jacob
J
Dee
Avi
A
Hakim
Paul
P
Cantey
Travis
T
Lim
Hawa
H
Bah
Sékou Mohamed
SM
Camara
Clement B
CB
Ndongmo
Mory
M
Togba
Leonie Yvonne
LY
Touré
Pepe
P
Bilivogui
Mohammed
M
Sylla
Michael
M
Kinzer
Fátima
F
Coronado
Jon Eric
JE
Tongren
Mahesh
M
Swaminathan
Lise
L
Mandigny
Boubacar
B
Diallo
Thomas
T
Seyler
Marc
M
Rondy
Guénaël
G
Rodier
William A
WA
Perea
Benjamin
B
Dahl
D000328:Adult; D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005260:Female; D016701:Guinea / Q000453:epidemiology; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health / Q000379:methods*
Ebola; Ebola virus disease; Guinea; contact tracing; epidemic control; viruses