Covid-19 response must be 'regionalised' to trace sources of infection – Limerick public health doctor
Dr Marie Casey, a public health specialist in the Mid-West, said localising data would give a better overview of patterns as they emerge.
Investigating and tracing the source of Covid-19 infections will not be possible unless the public health response moves away from the current national model to a more regional one.
That’s according to Dr Marie Casey, a public health specialist in the Mid-West region, who said the response should be regionalised, with allocated contact tracing staff, to enable local teams to respond on the ground.
The fact that contact tracing centres are fielding calls from all over the country presented missed opportunities, Dr Casey said.
A more regional approach, however, enables staff to detect “common signals”, such as communions, parties, or other social gatherings.
“These are the kinds of things that are missed when contact tracing is very national and it doesn’t have this very regionalised connection,” she said.
“Really we can’t do reverse contact tracing or source investigation without that regionalisation,” she added.
The rapid response by the Mid-West public health team to recent Covid-19 outbreaks among the student population in Limerick, she said, was just one example of tailoring the response to local needs.
Dr Casey, who was speaking at a webinar hosted by the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group (ISAG), highlighted the series of challenges facing public health specialists, from a lack of staff and funding, to an archaic IT system, to a failure to recognise specialists as medical consultants.
The fact that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre was without a director for fours years prior to the pandemic spoke volumes for the priority given to public health. The post is currently filled on an interim basis.
“Essentially that’s the Anthony Fauci of our country, it’s a very senior role. It’s the person who puts the plan in place for pandemics, who looks to the future, and who connects with the World Health Organisation and ECDC,” Dr Casey said.
“This was down to the contract issue. We had international candidates interested who withdrew once they realised the terms under which they would be employed,” she added.
The seminar also heard from Professor Martin McKee, a public health expert with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, who said Covid-19 infection rates were moving in the right direction across Europe but were still a “long way” from levels seen last summer.
He added that less than 10% of the population in much of Europe had contracted the virus, which poured cold water on the concept of herd immunity: “These much-promoted ideas of herd immunity remain as much of a fantasy as they ever were.”
