NVSC specialist sees reason why the spread of coronavirus is not controlled in Lithuania

Justina Petravičienė, a public information specialist at the Vilnius Department of the National Center for Public Health (NVSC), sees an important reason for the unstoppable spread of the COVID-19 infection. They are people who have not been in contact with an infected person in a timely manner. Finding out these contacts is a matter for NVSC specialists. It is true that this is not very easy for them. Some people find it difficult to call, others are reluctant to reach out to professionals. There is another side: infected people complain that they do not receive the care of NVSC specialists in any way.

However, recently it has been devised how to solve this problem. From now on, it will be possible to report your contact with an infected person yourself by completing a special online form. The Delfi portal spoke with J. Petraviečienė about this and about the daily life of NVSC employees, explaining the circumstances of the coronavirus infection and possible contacts.

– Why is it important not only to register a case, but also to collect more information about it?

– The purpose of the epidemiological survey is to identify the source of the infection, identify people who have been in contact with an infected coronavirus infection, and isolate them so that the infection does not spread. This cannot be done without an epidemiological investigation or, more generally, an interview with an infected person.

Of course, it is very important to emphasize that our specialists, volunteers, follow the information they receive from an infected person. This means that a person must provide detailed answers to questions, not hide information. Certainly there are situations where, for example, an infected person claims that they did not visit any place during the so-called contagious period, and when contacted by the workplace, it turns out that the person was there anyway. There are opposite situations.

There are also situations where a person simply refuses to provide information. In all cases, we try to convince a person that the information they provide can save lives, but some people do not allow themselves to use any language. We have been dealing with this with particular frequency lately.

During the period of the pandemic, our volunteer professionals have really had to deal with a wide variety of situations. The emotional burden of people who carry out epidemiological diagnoses is enormous. Very often they not only have to “absorb” the emotions of bad people, but also provide psychological help.

– People often complain that it is not possible to contact NVSC specialists or receive a call from them about their contact or infection. Why is that? Do you lack the strength to contact everyone?

– The percentage of epidemiologically investigated cases in Lithuania is very high: both in November and December it reached 90%, when, at that time, the European Center for Communicable Diseases has determined that at least 70% of epidemiologically investigated cases are consider good. cases.

In general, we contact nine out of ten infected, we determine the circumstances of their infection, the people who have been in contact, and we isolate them, thus breaking the chain of the virus.

As for the tenth not contacted by NVSC specialists, military volunteers who have been helping us for more than three months, specialists from public health offices, this was due to several reasons: the person did not answer calls, refused to provide information, no human contact details.

In the case of high-risk people, that is, those identified as high-risk in epidemiological studies and referred to case researchers by people with confirmed COVID-19 disease, we are informed through short messages. They indicate when the person should be isolated, as well as a reference to the questionnaire, after which the person provides important data to professionals.

That is, this process is automated, and in this case, if the person had a high-risk exposure and the infected person indicated it, the person does not need to go anywhere else.

For this reason, what we always emphasize and remind those infected is to name all the people with whom they interacted during the period in which the person may have been infected – 3 days before and 10 days after the onset of symptoms, asymptomatically 3 days before the test. and 10 days after jo.

We are currently also improving the work of the helpline and responding to 80%. calls, even with really high call volume for one problem or another.

Regarding capacity, it is necessary to mention the contribution of the military volunteers, specialists from the public health offices, which is really significant to ensure the epidemiological diagnosis.

– What should a person do if a GP has detected COVID-19 after an examination or diagnosis? How to report contacts?

– As soon as you find out that you are sick, you must submit epidemiological data about yourself, complete the questionnaire on your own (https://atvejis.nvsc.lt) and provide detailed information on how and where you were infected, with whom you had high contact risk.

The sooner a person provides this information, the sooner people who have interacted with the infected person and who may pose a risk to others will be isolated, which means that the spread of the virus will be stopped.

– What happens when I complete the NVSC questionnaire?

– The completed questionnaire enters the system, it is linked to human information in the system, where we see when the person was examined or when the disease was diagnosed by a family doctor.

The questionnaire sent is evaluated by specialists. If you have any questions, please contact the person as well. If there are no questions, the people who have been in contact are immediately isolated and informed by short SMS messages.

– How was this questionnaire created?

– Questionnaire for the infected – joint work of the NVSC, soldiers of the Voluntary National Defense Force (NDVF) and the initiative “Let’s Overcome Together”. For the questionnaire to be comprehensive and useful, it was important to evaluate all the practicalities of how to best ask the questions to obtain more detailed information.

And here, the professional knowledge, skills, and of course their practical experience in epidemiological diagnosis of what they have been doing for the last three months have really paid off.

– Who needs that questionnaire?

– The questionnaire will shorten the information supply chain, and people will provide more accurate data by completing the questionnaire themselves, since they will have more time to think about where they have visited, to identify more places where they may have been infected if I do not know exactly.

In fact, when we come into contact with infected people, we are often faced with situations where they do not remember certain circumstances when they learn of the disease due to stress. You have to adapt, contact several times, it happens that only after a few hours do people remember that, for example, during the contagious period they were still interacting with another person. At that point, by completing the questionnaire yourself, the person will have more time to think, they will feel more free to provide information.

This questionnaire will also be especially useful for those who do not want to talk to the person taking the survey due to their health or other circumstances.

In addition, the questionnaire is a very good example of how we can contribute to slowing the spread of the infection if it has already happened that we have not prevented COVID-19. By completing the questionnaire, we will ensure that the people we have been in contact with are informed more quickly about the contact they have, and will be able to protect their family and colleagues from risk.