To monitor and control the spread of (notifiable) infectious diseases, the Municipal Health Services (GGD) in the Netherlands conduct routine contact tracing, in which infected individuals are interviewed and their contacts are identified and notified. On both a local and national level, contact tracing is a key intervention in infectious disease control, as it allows us to slow down onward transmission and control outbreaks when they occur. In addition, contact tracing provides insight into pathogen spread, which is important for decision-making on interventions.
However, complicating factors such as high case numbers and asymptomatic transmission make contact tracing a challenging endeavour. During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing apps such as CoronaMelder in the Netherlands were introduced with the promise of fast and comprehensive contact identification, but their impact was hampered by insufficient population uptake and use.
Contact tracing is a key intervention in infectious disease control. Our research helps us understand how we can make this intervention work better when the next pandemic strikes.
Tim Florschütz
PDPC, Erasmus MC
PhD Candidate
Within its research line on innovative infectious disease control, the PDPC is working on preparing the contact tracing approach for the next pandemic. To do so, we identify the challenges and bottlenecks that contact tracing faced in the COVID-19 pandemic and any innovations that were already tested. In addition, we investigate the impact of contact tracing on virus transmission to see when and how contact tracing is most effective in preventing transmission. We also look at the data collected by contact tracing and the effects of improving data collection as part of contact tracing. Finally, we investigate the barriers and drivers to using contact tracing apps to better understand why these apps met with insufficient uptake and use. Together, these insights will help to formulate innovative approaches for contact tracing in the next pandemic.
