EcoHealth Alliance Identifies Ebola's Flight Path to the U.S.

[tetano]

EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on local conservation and global health issues, developed a series of global maps using available airline flight route data to calculate and predict the probable arrival of Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus from infected travelers in West Africa. The data was collected from flight schedules from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Nigeria and Ghana. The analysis shows that the highest risk countries are the United States and much of Europe. The methods used in this risk analysis were developed by EcoHealth Alliance's previous examination of the global spread of influenza A/H1N1 that originated in Mexico in 2009 with findings published in the scientific journal PLoS One.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has caused significant concerns over the possible spread outside of the region. EcoHealth Alliance's modeling team identified the top five U.S. airports that had direct flight arrivals from West African countries. In order of highest risk include New York's JFK International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Boston Logan International Airport. Last week, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency.

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http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/news/2014/08/ecohealth-alliance-identifies-ebolas-flight-path-to-the-us.aspx