Digital Traceability technologies may be able to help in the Pandemic against virus spread

When the Coronavirus initially spread across the globe, governments tried to contain it and prevent increasing cases. Supply chains were impacted because of the increased sudden demand of medical products and equipment which led to a lot of counterfeit products like PPE and even vaccines flooding the markets. Suddenly there was a new need of contact tracing that became an overnight concern for governments and required more reliable and streamlined ways to prevent further infection in communities.

Back in March 2020, when Covid-19 was rapidly spreading across the world, Harvard Medical School published an article* that highlighted the importance of contact tracing and how it can contribute in preventing further transmission of the virus. Contact tracing helped in quickly identify and inform infected or contagious people and then allowed authorities to take necessary steps to not infect others.

With the use of digital traceability technologies, it’s a quicker, efficient and  more user friendly way to do contact tracing and also to protect the privacy of patients through keeping their information confidential. Authorities can use the data collected (health status, location) via these technologies, specifically through mobile technologies, to quickly track the location where the infection has spread to, how many further people have gotten infected, what steps to take and then make decisions on how to prevent newer infections from arising in the community.

In a modelling study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Kucharski and colleagues, said that although contact tracing alone is not likely to contain the virus; digital tracing alone reduced cases by 44% and manual tracing of all contacts reduced cases by 61%.**

Traceability principles don’t have to be limited to just individuals but can also be applied to the overall pharma industry which will include manufacturing and distribution sectors. Being able to identify each unit or item through unique identifying codes can help vastly in preventing counterfeit or fault goods from harming the health of the public. This is especially helpful towards authenticating Covid-19 testing kits, PPEs and vaccines.

It must be mentioned that the effectiveness of this technology are not the only factors in determining the success of a contact tracing programme. There are other factors that must be taken into consideration such as including whether users self-isolate and get tested quickly. Having said that, Digital traceability technologies offer solutions that can be considered as the first steps in preventing further cases of COVID-19 across the globe.

Source:

*https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/preventing-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus

**https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30251-X/fulltext