Researchers estimate the risk of infectious disease transmission on board transcontinental airline flights. More than a dozen cases of transmission of infectious diseases onboard airline flights have been documented, and air travel can potentially facilitate the rapid spread of emerging infections. Despite the public health concerns surrounding in-flight disease transmission, the actual risks of such transmission are unknown. Vicki Hertzberg, Howard Weiss, and colleagues documented movement patterns of passengers and crew in the economy class cabins of single-aisle aircraft during 10 transcontinental US flights. Respiratory diseases such as influenza are transmitted primarily over short distances through respiratory droplets. Movement of passengers and crew may therefore facilitate disease transmission by bringing more people into close contact with an infected individual. The authors used the data on passenger and crew movements to model influenza transmission during a flight, using the example of an infected person seated midcabin. Passengers seated within one row and within two seats laterally of the infected passenger had an 80% or greater probability of becoming infected, according to the model. For all other passengers, the probability of infection was less than 3%. An infectious crewmember could infect an average of 4.6 passengers per flight, according to the authors.
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Article #17-11611: "Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights," by Vicki Stover Hertzberg et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Vicki Stover Hertzberg, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA tel: 404-727-1881, 404-291-0088; e-mail: <vhertzb@emory.edu>; Howard Weiss, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; e-mail: <Weiss@gatech.edu>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences