Contact Tracing Activities during the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014

• Main Authors: Meredith G. Dixon, Melanie M. Taylor, Jacob Dee, Avi Hakim, Paul Cantey, Travis Lim, Hawa Bah, Sékou Mohamed Camara, Clement B. Ndongmo, Mory Togba, Leonie Yvonne Touré, Pepe Bilivogui, Mohammed Sylla, Michael H. Kinzer, Fátima Coronado, Jon Eric Tongren, Mahesh Swaminathan, Lise Mandigny, Boubacar Diallo, Thomas Seyler, Marc Rondy, Guénaël Rodier, William Perea, Benjamin A. Dahl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2015-11-01
• Series: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• Subjects: Ebola; viruses; contact tracing; epidemic control; Guinea; Ebola virus disease
• Online Access: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/11/15-0684_article

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.