Establishing prison-led contact tracing to prevent outbreaks of COVID-19 in prisons in Ireland.


Journal

Journal of public health (Oxford, England)
ISSN: 1741-3850
Titre abrégé: J Public Health (Oxf)
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101188638

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
18 Aug 2020
Historique:
received: 26 05 2020
revised: 02 06 2020
accepted: 02 06 2020
pubmed: 23 6 2020
medline: 1 9 2020
entrez: 23 6 2020
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Preventing transmission of COVID-19 within prisons is both important and challenging. The confined conditions in prisons can encourage person-to-person spread with the potential for outbreaks occurring. Contact tracing is an important contributor to the longer-term management strategy for COVID-19 in prisons as well as in the community but is highly resource-intensive. This paper describes the approach to contact tracing taken by the Irish Prison Service (IPS). The IPS National Infection Control Team, in collaboration with the National Quality Improvement (QI) team and Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland, implemented a programme to develop and train in-prison contact tracing teams (CTTs). CTTs were run by prison staff with experience of working with detainees, prison IT systems and CCTV. Protocols for undertaking contact tracing for both detainee and staff cases of COVID-19 were established. All prisons, and two support agencies, within the IPS now have fully functional in-prison CTTs. Every CTT has responded to at least one case COVID-19, undertaken contact tracing and instigated quarantine of contacts. A partnership approach with development of prison-led CTTs can provide an effective mechanism for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases within the prison setting.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Preventing transmission of COVID-19 within prisons is both important and challenging. The confined conditions in prisons can encourage person-to-person spread with the potential for outbreaks occurring. Contact tracing is an important contributor to the longer-term management strategy for COVID-19 in prisons as well as in the community but is highly resource-intensive. This paper describes the approach to contact tracing taken by the Irish Prison Service (IPS).
METHODS METHODS
The IPS National Infection Control Team, in collaboration with the National Quality Improvement (QI) team and Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland, implemented a programme to develop and train in-prison contact tracing teams (CTTs). CTTs were run by prison staff with experience of working with detainees, prison IT systems and CCTV. Protocols for undertaking contact tracing for both detainee and staff cases of COVID-19 were established.
RESULTS RESULTS
All prisons, and two support agencies, within the IPS now have fully functional in-prison CTTs. Every CTT has responded to at least one case COVID-19, undertaken contact tracing and instigated quarantine of contacts.
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
A partnership approach with development of prison-led CTTs can provide an effective mechanism for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases within the prison setting.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32567653
pii: 5860596
doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa092
pmc: PMC7337798
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

519-524

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Références

Epidemiol Rev. 2018 Jun 1;40(1):4-11
pubmed: 29860342
Lancet Public Health. 2020 Apr;5(4):e188-e189
pubmed: 32197116
Science. 2020 May 22;368(6493):860-868
pubmed: 32291278

Auteurs

Mattea Clarke (M)

Health and Justice, Public Health England, London, England.

John Devlin (J)

Irish Prison Service, Ireland.

Emmett Conroy (E)

Irish Prison Service, Ireland.

Enda Kelly (E)

Irish Prison Service, Ireland.

Sunita Sturup-Toft (S)

Health and Justice, Public Health England, London, England.
UK Collaborating Centre for WHO Health in Prisons Programme, UK.

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