Media Advisory: INFORMS Aviation Security Expert and Professor at the University of Illinois Says Airports Should Screen for Ebola the Same Way They Screen for Terrorists

CATONSVILLE, Md., Oct. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- INFORMS 2015 Treasurer and Professor at the University of Illinois Sheldon H. Jacobson has taken a public stance to challenge the way airports screen for Ebola, recommending much more aggressive measures than are currently being employed worldwide.  As a longstanding expert in the field of airport security and the design of aviation security systems, Jacobson explains how his research can be applied to stem the spread of Ebola, which has become a greater threat to the U.S. and other countries over the last few weeks. Jacobson lays out his ideas in a recent opinion piece published in the Washington Post, which include airport quarantines and blood tests to prevent the virus from spreading further in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Addressing the question of how to screen passengers traveling from known Ebola hot spots, Jacobson advises:

"Recently introduced procedures at five airports in the United States serve to contain the spread of Ebola from entering into the general population, but do nothing to keep people affected with Ebola from coming to the United States in the first place.  Screening at these five airports is an implicit admission that the exit screening being performed in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are porous and unreliable.  An international effort to tighten exit screening at the airports in these West Africa countries should be a top screening priority to contain the spread of Ebola outside this area. Moreover, stopping air travel from these countries into the United States will have the unexpected effect of spreading the virus into new regions as people scramble to find alternative ways out of West Africa."

Further recommendations based on his research are available here: http://shj.cs.illinois.edu/. Dr. Jacobson is available for interview. Please contact Barry List at [email protected] to learn more.

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