Backward tracing of suspect contacts and diagnosis As a result of this rapid forward tracing response, it is likely that more active infections would be identified. The resulting new information could be used to more effectively characterize the life cycle of the agent, thereby hopefully permitting effectively delimited backward tracing. Also as a result of accumulated information, positive tests for the agent would become available. Once this stage had been reached the focus of action could shift from control of suspect transactions to control of transactions known to facilitate the transmission of the agent. Both technical and social factors play a key role in the operation of the control mechanism.
Contact tracing is probably most effective for sparsely interacting hosts.
The rate of transfer of the infectious agent as compared to the rate of transfer of the suspect transaction codes is also a critical factor. Recording of transactions can be comprehensive on computer networks, however, unregistered transactions will be a factor in most cases. Once the infectious agent has been identified, the type of transactions capable of transmitting the agent can be delimited. This could increase efficiency. Social organization of alerts Another major efficiency factor is errors in origination of alerts.