Development and implementation of the Ebola Exposure Window Calculator: A tool for Ebola virus disease outbreak field investigations.
Algorithms
Cell Phone
/ statistics & numerical data
Democratic Republic of the Congo
/ epidemiology
Disease Notification
/ statistics & numerical data
Disease Outbreaks
/ prevention & control
Ebolavirus
/ isolation & purification
Health Plan Implementation
/ legislation & jurisprudence
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola
/ diagnosis
Humans
Risk Assessment
/ methods
Software
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2021
2021
Historique:
received:
26
03
2021
accepted:
20
07
2021
entrez:
5
8
2021
pubmed:
6
8
2021
medline:
30
11
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
During an Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, calculating the exposure window of a confirmed case can assist field investigators in identifying the source of infection and establishing chains of transmission. However, field investigators often have difficulty calculating this window. We developed a bilingual (English/French), smartphone-based field application to assist field investigators in determining the exposure window of an EVD case. The calculator only requires the reported date of symptoms onset and the type of symptoms present at onset or the date of death. Prior to the release of this application, there was no similar electronic capability to enable consistent calculation of EVD exposure windows for field investigators. The Democratic Republic of the Congo Ministry of Health endorsed the application and incorporated it into trainings for field staff. Available for Apple and Android devices, the calculator continues to be downloaded even as the eastern DRC outbreak resolved. We rapidly developed and implemented a smartphone application to estimate the exposure window for EVD cases in an outbreak setting.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34352008
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255631
pii: PONE-D-21-09987
pmc: PMC8341611
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0255631Subventions
Organisme : World Health Organization
ID : 001
Pays : International
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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