Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

The EU-funded AIRSAN Project, amongst other objectives, aims to facilitate the implementation of the International
Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) in EU Member-States as well as the EU-Decision 1082/EC/2013 on serious cross-border
threats to health. Many organizations (e.g. WHO, IATA, ICAO) have developed useful documents to support the management
of a health related threat or disruption on board of an aircraft and at airports. We aimed to list these documents, so that their
content becomes quickly accessible. We created a searchable Excel-based list, the ‘AIRSAN Bibliography’. Documents issued by
international organizations about public health in the aviation sector were included. Furthermore, the AIRSAN Bibliography
contains structural data regarding each document, e.g. issuing organizations, year of publishing, published language. We
defined 33 IHR relevant keywords, e.g. emergency planning, training, isolation. Two scientists reviewed the documents and
systematically indexed all pages including information on the keywords. To allow a distinction between more or less detailed
text passages, we assigned a score (indicating the level of detail) to each keyword specific page. The AIRSAN Bibliography
includes 48 documents, issued by 8 international organizations. Its practical use can be illustrated by the following example: an
emergency plan needs to be developed or revised. The search for the keyword “emergency planning” lists 21 documents, with
references to pages that contain keyword specific information. 11 of the 21 documents enclose information of the highest level
of detail. Available guidance documents and recommendations related to suspected or identified cases of zoonotic influenza,
tuberculosis and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome travelling by air, are included in the Bibliography. 2 The AIRSAN
Bibliography makes public health action-orientated information in the aviation sector quickly accessible for practical use. We
have loaded the AIRSAN Bibliography onto the project website (www.airsan.eu). Easy open access to international documents
will support the implementation of the IHR as well as the EU-Decision 1082/EC/2013 and contributes to better inter-sectoral
collaboration. To ensure sustainability, the AIRSAN Bibliography will be regularly updated. In 2015 we will include guidance
documents and recommendations regarding Ebola virus disease based on the recent outbreak in West Africa.

Biography