An alternative approach to determination of Covid‑19 personal risk index by using fuzzy logic

Abstract

COVID-19 disease is an outbreak that seriously affected the whole world, occurred in December 2019, and thus was declared a global epidemic by WHO (World Health Organization). To reduce the impact of the epidemic on humans, it is important to detect the symptoms of the disease in a timely and accurate manner. Recently, several new variants of COVID-19 have been identified in the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, Brazil and India, and preliminary findings have been suggested that these mutations increase the transmissibility of the virus. Therefore, the aim of this study is to construct a support system based on fuzzy logic for experts to help detect of COVID-19 infection risk in a timely and accurate manner and to get a numerical output on symptoms of the virus from every person. The decision support system consists of three different sub and one main Mamdani type fuzzy inference systems (FIS). Subsystems are Common- Serious symptoms (First), Rare Symptoms (Second) and Personal Information (Third). The first FIS has five inputs, fever-time, cough-time, fatigue-time, shortness of breath and chest pain/dysfunction; the second FIS has four inputs, Loss of Taste/Smell, Body Aches, Conjuctivitis, and Nausea/Vomiting/Diarrhea; and the third FIS has three inputs, Age, Smoke, and Comorbidities. Then, we obtain personal risk index of individual by combining the outputs of these subsystems in a final FIS. The results can be used by health professionals and epidemiologists to make inferences about public health. Numerical output can also be useful for self-control of an individual.