Analysis of Infectious Diseases Screening Systems for Transatlantic Air Passengers

Since transportation systems, especially air transportation, have the potential to spread infectious diseases (e.g. Ebola, SARS) quickly across large geographical area through its users, passenger health screening systems installed at the airports can help to slow down the international spread. This Thesis identifies and tests health screening system designs using discrete event simulation. The three objectives are: (1) to provide the necessary background regarding the diseases and screening technologies, (2) to create models of an air transportation network in a simulation software, and (3) to conduct simulation experiments, analyze and interpret the results including the formulation of recommendations for decision makers. In the first part of the Thesis, several infectious diseases are described, as well as the health screening methods and procedures. In the second part, four simulation models are developed. In the third part, the experimental results are presented and, based on them, several recommendations are provided. The research showed that from the global perspective, exit screening in the affected countries is the most important measure in order to slow down the spread of an infectious disease. Adding another screenings (entry screening) at the receiving airports did not bring much improvement. From the perspective of the local design, a screening station should consist of four to six questionnaire evaluation stations and one non-contact infrared thermometer