X-Message-Number: 4381
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: Re: Ebola Virus
Date: Thu, 11 May 95 00:03:16 +0200 (CET DST)

Ebola Virus has hit the news here too. Sweden now has a complete 
Biosafety Level 4 facility. 

The CDC has recently started a newsletter called
"Emerging Infectious Diseases," It is in the public domain, so you can
probably get it free. Email the editor at 

Since 1979, I have tried to get support for a project using electronic
means for control of infectious agents without much luck. So far,
I have gotten the most interest in computer virus applications.
Pigs seem to be the next best application area. (There is a very large
part of the economy here dependent on export of pork.)

This is the abstract of a paper I am now revising for publication.
If you want to read the draft or know of a funding source, let me
know.

                Contagion Management System

The very long latency between HIV infection and the appearance of 
AIDS imposes extensive information processing requirements on 
partner notification efforts. The apparently contradictory needs of 
maintaining the right to privacy of infected persons, while 
simultaneously providing information to persons at risk of infection, 
imposes severe security requirements. These requirements can be 
satisfied by a Contagion Management System based upon networked 
personal computers of a kind now becoming available. Security of 
information is based upon cryptographic protocols that implement 
anonymous partner notification (contact tracing) and privacy preserving 
negotiation. The proposed scheme has the following properties: (a) 
Contact tracing is automated, (b) contacts remain anonymous, (c) 
sensitive information is kept private, and (d) risk conscious users can 
act in a manner indistinguishable from that occurring if secured 
information were made public. Optimal health protection can thus be 
obtained while securing informational rights.

Key terms: Preventative health services, patient data privacy, real-time 
systems, distributed data bases, epidemiology.




David S. Stodolsky, PhD,  Euromath Center,  University of Copenhagen
Universitetsparken 5, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30. Fax: +45 38 33 88 80. (C)


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