ArticleBMC infectious diseases2010
Assessing the role of contact tracing in a suspected H7N2 influenza A outbreak in humans in Wales.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contact tracing strategies for infectious diseases: A systematic literature review.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- The host tropism of current zoonotic H7N9 viruses depends mainly on an acid-labile hemagglutinin with a single amino acid mutation in the stalk region.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Evaluating the impact of test-trace-isolate for COVID-19 management and alternative strategies.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of Contact Tracing for Viral Disease Mitigation and Suppression: Evidence-Based Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2021Review
- COVID-19 contact tracing: The Welsh experience.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- Contact tracing performance during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, 2014-2015.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- The eyes have it: influenza virus infection beyond the respiratory tract.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2018Review
- Reviewing the History of Pandemic Influenza: Understanding Patterns of Emergence and Transmission.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2016Review
- Article
- Genetic characterization of natural reassortant H4 subtype avian influenza viruses isolated from domestic ducks in Zhejiang province in China from 2013 to 2014.Virus genes · 2015Article
- Distribution of sialic acid receptors and experimental infections with different subtypes of influenza A viruses in Qinghai-Tibet plateau wild pika.Virology journal · 2015Article
- The matrix gene segment destabilizes the acid and thermal stability of the hemagglutinin of pandemic live attenuated influenza virus vaccines.Journal of virology · 2014Article
- Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of H3 subtype avian influenza viruses isolated from domestic ducks in Zhejiang Province in China.Virus genes · 2014Article
- Prevalence and control of H7 avian influenza viruses in birds and humans.Epidemiology and infection · 2014Review
- Mammalian models for the study of H7 virus pathogenesis and transmission.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2014Review
- Conflicts of interest during contact investigations: a game-theoretic analysis.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2014Article
- Towards multiscale modeling of influenza infection.Journal of theoretical biology · 2013Article
- The emergence of influenza A H7N9 in human beings 16 years after influenza A H5N1: a tale of two cities.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2013Article
- Intervention strategies for emerging respiratory virus infections: policy and public health considerations.Current opinion in virology · 2013Review
- A detailed epidemiological and clinical description of 6 human cases of avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus infection in Shanghai.PloS one · 2013Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe detailed analysis of an outbreak database has been undertaken to examine the role of contact tracing in controlling an outbreak of possible avian influenza in humans. The outbreak, initiating from the purchase of infected domestic poultry, occurred in North Wales during May and June 2007. During this outbreak, extensive contact tracing was carried out. Following contact tracing, cases and contacts believed to be at risk of infection were given treatment/prophylaxis.
methodsWe analyse the database of cases and their contacts identified for the purposes of contact tracing in relation to both the contact tracing burden and effectiveness. We investigate the distribution of numbers of contacts identified, and use network structure to explore the speed with which treatment/prophylaxis was made available and to estimate the risk of transmission in different settings.
resultsFourteen cases of suspected H7N2 influenza A in humans were associated with a confirmed outbreak among poultry in May-June 2007. The contact tracing dataset consisted of 254 individuals (cases and contacts, of both poultry and humans) who were linked through a network of social contacts. Of these, 102 individuals were given treatment or prophylaxis. Considerable differences between individuals' contact patterns were observed. Home and workplace encounters were more likely to result in transmission than encounters in other settings. After an initial delay, while the outbreak proceeded undetected, contact tracing rapidly caught up with the cases and was effective in reducing the time between onset of symptoms and treatment/prophylaxis.
conclusionsContact tracing was used to link together the individuals involved in this outbreak in a social network, allowing the identification of the most likely paths of transmission and the risks of different types of interactions to be assessed. The outbreak highlights the substantial time and cost involved in contact tracing, even for an outbreak affecting few individuals. However, when sufficient resources are available, contact tracing enables cases to be identified before they result in further transmission and thus possibly assists in preventing an outbreak of a novel virus.
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