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Local health experts turn to contact tracing to slow the spread of Covid-19

County contact tracing teams expect to be busy, as more of Ohio's economy reopens

CLEVELAND — It's called contact tracing.

Simply put, it's tracking down everyone, whom a sick person came into contact with, within the last two weeks. If that sounds like a tall task -- It is.

"The more you interact outside your home, the more you interact with other people, it leads to a greater potential to spread to other people," explained Dr. Amina Egwiekhor, epidemiologist, and contact tracing expert at the Cuyahoga Board of Health.

When alerted of positive case by a hospital, a 30-member team of contact tracers from the county reaches out to the patient by phone. 

Rob Segulin, 49, a science teacher at Kenston High School, who tested positive for COVID-19 in April, shared his information with the health department.

"There's so many people who are doubting that this virus exists, still," said Segulin, who is still battling the disease at home. Segulin was healthy and active, and without any underlying health conditions. Yet seven weeks after his diagnosis, he's still battling a fever and shortness of breath.

"Whenever people will listen to me, I tell them, take the flu, and multiply it by 10. That's a good way to look at it," he said. In fact, 53 days after his diagnosis, he says he registered a 102-degree fever Monday evening.

To spare the suffering, or potentially save lives of others, Segulin was more than happy to share his information with a contact tracer. These disease detectives contact patients to ask where the patient spent time before the diagnosis, what activities they participated in, and with whom the person crossed paths. Those contacts are encouraged to go into quarantine and get tested. When done effectively, contact tracing can stop the virus in its tracks.

"It's definitely important," said Segulin. "Because if I could have known where that [the virus] came from, [what I've experienced] could have been eliminated."

Health officials emphasized that a patient's privacy is a priority. Contact tracers never divulge the patient's name with the people who they were in contact with, nor the businesses or places that they visited. Providing information to a contact tracer is voluntary, but strongly encouraged to stop the spread of COVID-19.

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