Importance of IR imaging systems
TWO PHASES OF EPIDEMIOLOGICAL MEASURES
Through epidemiological models, we know that if there is effective intervention against coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, as already implemented in South Korea, for example, this effective intervention will take place in two phases. This is explained below.
FIRST PHASE
If everything goes well, strict anti-coronavirus measures (currently underway in many countries around the world) should last for several weeks (or even several months), after which there should be the desired peaking of the disease and subsequently the number of newly infected people in the population should start to fall. This could be achieved at an economically reasonable cost. This will save millions of lives. But it is not over! A second phase, which is no longer as restrictive, will be needed to prevent another outbreak. At this stage, the quarantine measures are gradually relaxed and more and more of our freedoms will start to return. However, this phase is very susceptible to the epidemic starting again. We will explain it below.
Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (causing COVID19) is very contagious and we will have to fight against it in the second quarantine phase with all available technologies to prevent the transmission of infection in the population and to isolate infected individuals immediately and their immediate surroundings where they may have come into contact with others. This is particularly important because, in this more relaxed phase, disease transmission is faster and easier, as people come into contact with each other more often. This is the “dance” stage of tracing the infected people, precise screening of potentially infectious people, and the of contact-free measuring of temperatures etc. In Asian countries, where they have already moved on to the “dance” stage, the temperature is measured more than 10 times a day.
"The second phase of quarantine measures is primarily effective testing, effective tracing, travel bans, effective isolation and effective quarantine. This all uses modern technology including thermal cameras and non-contact temperature measurement."
Fighting hard in both phases will reduce deaths. Any technology that can help is welcome. Even small differences in the disease transmission coefficient can have enormous effects on the number of deaths and the entire economy, as there will be no need to repeat the restrictive and astronomically expensive phase of the hammer, which would have to reoccur with the widespread prevalence of COVID19.
THE APPLICATION OF THE THERMAL CAMERA IS ESPECIALLY USEFUL IN THE SECOND PHASE
Infrared camera MEDICAS can therefore help not only in the first phase of rapid growth of infected and hard quarantine measures (the previously mentioned “hammer” phase), but also, and even more effectively, in the “dance” phase, which lasts many months. MEDICAS is not a device that should be used just for a few weeks in the “hammer” phase, but primarily in the “dance” phase, where it is paradoxically much more critical to deal with every single occurrence of COVID19 because the disease can spread more easily.
"Infrared camera MEDICAS is not a device that should be used just for a few weeks in the “hammer” phase, but primarily in the “dance” phase, where it is paradoxically more critical to deal with every single occurrence of COVID19."
How long can these anti-epidemic measures take? A long time, unfortunately! Looking back at the Mexican swine flu caused by the A / H1N1 influenza viruses, we find that since the first recorded occurrence in Mexico on 17 March 2009, there was a pandemic (officially announced on 11 June) according to WHO that finished on 10 August 2010. So, the spread of a virus can last eighteen months! And this H1N1 virus had lower infectivity than the current SARS-Cov-2 virus (or strains)! For information, the occurrence of this influenza in the Czech Republic was recorded in 2477 people and associated with 102 deaths.
Thus, thermal cameras can help prevent further infections in the workplace and more accurately target the performance of COVID-19 tests. Its application reduces the probability that quarantine measures will be required within the workplace and thus reduces the potential risk of a significant loss of downtime of two to three weeks!
"The application of thermal cameras reduces the portability rate and hence the likelihood of quarantine measures being required within the workplace/plant, thus reducing the potential risk of high loss from two to three weeks downtime!"
And this application of thermal cameras is not a matter of just a few weeks but is a strategic element in the second phase of the strategy to curb the emergence of new epicentres of the epidemic. VARIOUS NOTES"And this application of thermal cameras is not a matter of just a few weeks but is a strategic element in the second phase of the strategy to curb the emergence of new epicentres of the epidemic."
Note No. 1 – Infectivity
A person infected with SARS-CoV-2 infects 2-3 people on average before (although this is being studied very intensively). This is what epidemiologists call the “reproductive number”. Influenza has a reproductive number of 1.06-3.4. The Spanish flu (which killed 50-100 million people) had a reproductive number of at least 1.8. COVID-19 is estimated to have a reproductive number of 1.4-3.9. The incubation period, i.e. the time from infection to the onset of symptoms, is about five days for COVID-19, although it may take up to 14 days for the symptoms to appear.
Note No. 2 – Decrease of reproductive number
REFERENCESSocial disavowal in Wuhan has led to a decline in the reproduction number from 2.35 to almost 1. This meant that the infection had ceased to spread rapidly because each infected person had infected only one other person. Without social distancing, 510,000 people would die in Britain and 2.2 million in the US.
[1] Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance
[2] 2009 flu pandemic
[3] Characteristics of and Important Lessons from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China
[4] Worldometers.com / Coronavirus Cases
[5] Epidemic Calculator