Abstract
Unusual biological events and outbreaks require rapid epidemiologic investigation and contact tracing procedures, allowing optimal handling of resources. Currently, these are resource intensive, time consuming, and extremely complex, requiring large teams of trained and prepared personnel. The goal of this study was to determine whether a technological alternative to the classic systems, based on the use of mobile phones and a unique algorithm, could perform a complete epidemiologic investigation in a setting of a bioterrorism scenario. The system was tested with 32 volunteers during a bioterrorism simulation drill, with quantitative assessment of key outcome measures: perform a complete analysis of the scenario, determine the fundamental biological attributes of the scenario, distinguish between related and unrelated cases, and identify possible exposed people among a known group of participants. The system fully achieved the objectives in just under 5 hours from the beginning of the simulation with only 3 false-positive "exposed" participants, while identifying all 11 true-positive "exposed" participants (overall accuracy of 85%). We find the system advantageous over currently used tools in a way that could be integrated in conjunction with current outbreak epidemiologic investigation tools and syndromic surveillance efforts to shorten the response time of national authorities in handling adverse biological events.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 22-29 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Health security |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2018 |
Keywords
- Anthrax
- Bioterrorism
- Cell phone technology
- Epidemiologic investigation
- National security
- Outbreak
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Emergency Medicine
- Safety Research
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis