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Screening at airports may not be completely effective in keeping Ebola away from the US and UK, a new study claims.

In a study published in the Lancet, researchers at Liverpool University's Institute of Infection and Global Health predicted the number of people infected with the deadly virus leaving West Africa and flying to US and the UK. Their predictions were based on a mathematical model. According to the study, 29 people would leave West Africa by end of this year, of which 10 are likely to display signs that would be caught at airports.

"We developed a mathematical model to consider how long people incubate the virus alongside how likely airline passengers are to be infected.   From this we were able to estimate that 10 of the 29 people likely to leave West Africa via airports this year would have symptoms of the disease and so could be detected at exit screening," epidemiologist Dr Jonathan Read said in a press release.

The symptoms in remaining 19 people would be missed at airports as they would have developed them after arrival. Of these 19 whose viral symptoms would evade screening, up to two people could arrive in the UK while up to three people would land in the US, researchers claimed. However there was no reason to panic as small number of infections in UK and the US cannot lead to a West Africa like epidemic owing to superior disease control facilities.

"This research shows that entry screening can reduce the overall chances of Ebola being brought into the UK, but that some infected passengers may still get through undetected. Even if we do see a case of Ebola that has not been detected at airport screening we have a good chance of stopping the spread of the infection," said the institute's head, Professor Tom Solomon.