A New Measure for Assessing the Public Health Response to a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Outbreak

Abstract

Contact monitoring is an essential component of the public health response to a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, and is required for an effective quarantine to contain the epidemic. The timeliness of a quarantine is associated with its effectiveness. This paper provides a conceptual framework to describe the process of contact monitoring, and proposes a new measure called the “timely quarantined proportion” as a tool to assess the adequacy of a public health response.

Keywords

• Contact tracing
• Quarantine
• Isolation
• Surveillance
• Transmission
• Republic of Korea