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Optimizing the order of actions in a model of contact tracing
Contact tracing is a key tool for managing epidemic diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and monkeypox. Manual investigations by human-contact tracers remain a dominant way in which this is carried out. This process is limited by the number of contact tracers available, who are often overburde...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013731/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36926225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad003 |
Sumario: | Contact tracing is a key tool for managing epidemic diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and monkeypox. Manual investigations by human-contact tracers remain a dominant way in which this is carried out. This process is limited by the number of contact tracers available, who are often overburdened during an outbreak or epidemic. As a result, a crucial decision in any contact tracing strategy is, given a set of contacts, which person should a tracer trace next? In this work, we develop a formal model that articulates these questions and provides a framework for comparing contact tracing strategies. Through analyzing our model, we give provably optimal prioritization policies via a clean connection to a tool from operations research called a “branching bandit”. Examining these policies gives qualitative insight into trade-offs in contact tracing applications. |
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