Contact tracing

In epidemiology, contact tracing is the identification and diagnosis of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person. For sexually transmitted diseases, this is generally limited to sexual partners but for highly virulent diseases such as Ebola and tuberculosis, a thorough contact tracing would require information regarding casual contacts.

Some AIDS activists have argued that contact tracing is counter-productive in that it would lead persons to avoid seeking medical treatment for fear that it would breach their right to privacy.