COVID-19 | Sexually transmitted infections | Tuberculosis (TB) | |
---|---|---|---|
Biology of disease | Short incubation, rapid spread, little latency between infection and disease. Most infected individuals get symptomatic disease, asymptomatic individuals can be infectious | Varied biology with different infections. Most transmission by symptomatic individuals, but high infectivity may be early in disease with minimal symptoms (eg primary HIV infection and seroconversion) | Most exposed individuals are not infected; most infected individuals do not get symptomatic disease |
Knowledge of disease and control measures | Novel pathogen, rapidly evolving understanding of pathology and treatment options | Conditions well understood, multiple methods of prevention and treatment generally available | Long history of research into disease, transmission and treatments |
Mechanism of spread | Short exposure for infection (minutes). Believed to be primarily droplet-spread, although role of airborne transmission and contaminated surfaces unclear | Sexual contact | Primarily aerosol. Prolonged (>8 hours) contact required for transmission |
Interventions to prevent transmission | Contact tracing with isolation reduces onward transmission. No specific treatment available to prevent onward transmission | Identification of cases can allow preventative measures (eg condoms) Treatment of conditions prevents onward transmission (eg use of antiretroviral therapy for HIV) | Contact tracing detects incident disease, & latent (asymptomatic) infection Treatment of TB disease and latent TB cures or prevents disease, and reduces further transmission |
Contact tracing approach | Contact tracing by large workforce (but mostly with less specialist skill-set), largely independent of NHS public health services | Anonymous tracing often used, national electronic system within NHS | Person-to-person, networks of skilled professionals within NHS |
Infrastructure | Newly created structure with significant private sector input | Sexual health services part of health system, although with sensitive data not shared with other health systems | Built within NHS networks |