The coronavirus in Belgium has affected nearly 50,000 people. One of the keys to limiting its spread is to anticipate by warning people who have come into contact with a patient carrying the virus. A contact tracking system will then be set up tomorrow for all patients diagnosed positive, as there are for other diseases. According to Nathan Clumeck, professor of infectious diseases at the ULB and the CHU Saint-Pierre, this measure is taken too late and lacks professionalism.
To reduce the spread of the virus, it is important to know quickly who has Covid-19 and who these people have had recent contact with. “Thanks to contact tracking, we can together counter a possible second wave of the virus”, the FPS Public Health said on Twitter on Saturday.
Contact tracking consists of finding out who the Covid-19 carriers have been in contact with. To detect these people, you must be able to quickly inform them that they have been in contact with a carrier of the virus. Everyone can pay particular attention to their personal hygiene and help slow the spread, explain the health authorities. This method of tracking contacts is not new, the authorities remind. It is in fact used worldwide to limit the spread of certain diseases such as measles or meningitis.
570 operators in Wallonia, 235 in Brussels
How does this device work with us? “It’s the same principle as before for other diseases like tuberculosis, rubella or measles for example, explains Minister Christie Morealle, but on a larger scale “ given the scale of the coronavirus epidemic.
Call centers will be responsible for calling patients who test positive for coronavirus so that they provide the list of all persons crossed. These are close contacts of at least 15 minutes in the period two days before the onset of symptoms. This tracing work will be carried out by 570 officials in Wallonia and 235 in Brussels.
Medical secrecy and anonymity in all this? A question that is asked a lot against this system. People who have been in contact with a person diagnosed with the virus will be notified by the call center. But the identity of the person carrying the virus is not revealed. “It just says’ be careful you have potentially been with someone who is infected with the virus, be careful watch your symptoms and possibly get away” explains Minister Christie Morealle.
What if I receive this call? “The first recommendation will be that of attention”, according to Alain Maron, Brussels Minister for Health. People are obviously called upon to respect the rules in force such as social distancing, limit these trips to what is strictly necessary, but also to be extra vigilant regarding the possible appearance of symptoms.
“In the process, the person could be tested but it is not planned in a systematic way. We will first try to test the people who are symptomatic”, continues Alain Maron. This is the black point of the tracing system implemented in Belgium according to Nathan Clumeck, professor of infectious diseases at the ULB and the CHU Saint-Pierre.
No tracing without testing
“The objective of tracing is to dry the reservoir of people carrying the virus and the largest reservoir of virus currently, it is the hospitalized patients who then return home, notes Professor Nathan Clumeck. With tuberculosis, when we screen someone, we go to their family and we test it “. For the time being, such provisions will not be applied in the context of coronavirus.
“It is probably planned, but we could have done it before. We started this the day before the deconfinement when it had been planned for quite some time. We should have anticipated. Regarding the tests, the WHO says first: if you want to trace, you need testing “. The infectious disease judge “staggering” some discussions on asymptomatics. The latter will not be tested at first, due to an insufficient number of tests, confessed by Minister Alain Marron. “We had to convince people that asymptomatic people transmit the virus. It is an epidemiological reality. We have to change gear and work in a slightly more professional manner.”
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