Preparing Airports for Communicable Diseases on Arriving Flights

Disease outbreaks have become more visible in an era of mass travel, with air travel serving as a speedy and powerful means of transmitting communicable disease. Public health and airport responders can act to reduce transmission of illness from arriving flights. This synthesis examines current disease preparedness and response practices at U.S. and Canadian airports in coordination with public health officers and partners. Recent outbreaks, including but not limited to Ebola, H1N1, MERS-CoV, H5N1, H7N9, tuberculosis, and Zika have caused airports and public health agencies and departments to forge strong relationships and engage in joint planning both to protect community health and well-being, and ensure business continuity. While larger airports that receive international flights are most likely to experience the challenges associated with these events, the preparedness and response lessons are transferable to the aviation sector more widely. Smaller airports may be final destinations of those traveling with communicable diseases, so report findings are useful to all airport operators and local public health officers. The findings presented in this report are based on survey responses from a purposive sample of 50 airports and 39 public health departments, a review of peer-reviewed and gray literature, six detailed case examples involving interviews with aviation and public health partners, and interviews with representatives of five leading international, national, and regional airport and public health organizations to provide expert validation of the study’s findings and identify further research.

• Record URL:
  http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/176419.aspx
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309390088
• Authors:
  • Smith, James F
  • Greenberg, Joshua
• Publication Date: 2017

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Glossary; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 105p
• Serial:
  • ACRP Synthesis of Airport Practice
  • Issue Number: 83
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 1935-9187
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airports; Communicable diseases; Disaster preparedness; International travel; Public health
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Security and Emergencies; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01650544
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309390088
• Report/Paper Numbers: Project A11-03, Topic S03-12
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Nov 1 2017 2:18PM