Airplanes –Ticket to Infection?

Air travel has increased over the past few years. Affordable air costs and availability of flights have encouraged people to opt for this quickest means of transportation. For example in the last decade, there were 500,000 visitors to India from the U.K., mostly air travelers. Around 8 % of the worlds’ population went to different countries around the world for reasons ranging from touring, studies, business and medical treatment to migration. Such mass movements of people across the globe allow for free mixture of man and microbes. That’s one of the reasons how the latter find their way into newer lands. This makes it all the more important to look into air travel as a possible means of spreading infection.

Thanks to globalization of travel and international flights, diseases that took years to cross the seas and affect other parts of the world, today find quicker routes. The spread of SARS stands out as a classic example. Most recent news states that chikungunya has found its way to Italy. A foreigner, who traveled to the country after a trip to India, is reported to have spread the disease.

Transporting live animals and their products by airplanes can also spread diseases into countries that have previously had no history of the infection. Mutant strains of the influenza virus, such as H5N1, that crop up in the Far East may reach other countries through these means.

Another cause for concern is the looming threat of bio-terrorism that can spread lethal infectious diseases through air travel. From the dawn of the twentieth century, biological warfare has reared its ugly head as a possible weapon of mass destruction. Microorganisms that cause anthrax or smallpox can be easily disguised and transported virtually anywhere in the world by any means, including air travel.

It is precisely for these reasons researchers say that more attention should be paid to air travel and its role as a potential carrier of infectious diseases. It is fast emerging as a public health issue and needs to be tackled from all angles.