CONTACT TRACING IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19 IN HAITI

Contact tracing in public health is quickly becoming the gold standard for health care environments worldwide. Covid-19 has created an even greater need for this activity.

According to the World Health Organization (2021), contact tracing is the activity of finding and monitoring people who have been in touch with a Covid-19 infected person and then notifying the affected people.

The main goal of contact tracing in the context of covid-19 or any other infectious disease is to limit the spread of the virus. This was successfully done with HIV to impressive results. It also sets the opportunity to diagnose suspected people (someone who seems to have been in contact with the virus) and to offer treatment to infected persons through community services.

The contact tracers who are the individuals searching for contacts that have been in connection with infected persons play a crucial role in interrupting ongoing transmission and reducing the spread of the virus. If you have ever been contacted by a Covid-19 contact tracer, it is wise to collaborate for this greater community goal of optimal health among your neighborhood, and community.

Each risky contact reached and placed in quarantine is an opportunity to decrease the number of people that could have been infected by a risky contact.

How does contact tracing work in a challenging environment like Haiti?

The Haitian Ministry of Health, with the support of international non-governmental organizations, has been working in partnership with Solutions S.A for about 18 years building technological systems for efficient health data collection in Haiti.

One of the key roles of these systems is to allow the health ministry authorities to make informed decisions. The Covid management system (PLATEFORME DE DETECTION, DE SUIVI ET DE PRISE EN CHARGE INTÉGRÉE DU COVID-19) has been made available with training and ongoing support for the health facilities to record all the coronavirus data related. As of February 11, 2022, the system accounted for 117,089 screening and 46,774 investigated cases. Those numbers indicate that 117,089 persons went through the Covid-19 screening process and 46,774 have at least taken one Covid-19 test.  SOLUTIONS Covid surveillance system includes:

• A comprehensive and simple to use the web version to use on computers and a mobile version to use on mobile devices more precisely on tablets.
• The contact tracing feature follows the same workflow suggested by CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). It requires the facilities to have at least one staff to do the triage of risky contacts that were identified during the screening step, then assigns those contacts via the web version to field workers who receive them as tasks on their tablet to either call or visit them for notification, monitoring and referral if needed.

Are you working in the health sector and interested in becoming more efficient in saving people’s lives and contributing to the overall good health of an entire population?  Never before have tools like Solutions customized software been able to collaborate with our partners and empower our communities through providing IT tools to make their work more accountable and more impactful.

Want to learn more about these groundbreaking software solutions and how they might help you and your organization? Reach out to us at bizdev@solutions.ht to set up a conversation with one of our friendly business development team members.

Reference:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, May 31). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Contact tracing. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-contact-tracing