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Lucy Budd
Lucy
Budd
Pests on a plane: airports and the fight against infectious disease
Loughborough University
2012
untagged
Built Environment and Design not elsewhere classified
2012-06-12 09:25:15
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Pests_on_a_plane_airports_and_the_fight_against_infectious_disease/9439349
Regular flyers are all too aware that air travel can, on occasion, be bad for your
health. Jetlag, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), airsickness, dehydration, ear pain, and
respiratory infections are just some of the conditions that are reported. Yet while seatbased
exercises, air conditioning filters, flight socks, earplugs, boiled sweets,
inflatable pillows, and eyeshades may lessen some of the risks and discomfort
associated with flying, the warm, pressurised, sealed cabins of passenger aircraft
continue to offer the perfect environment in which certain pests and diseases may
thrive and spread. Medical journals are replete with stories of airline passengers
contracting a range of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, meningitis, measles,
and influenza, from fellow (infected) travellers, while the rapid spread of the SARS
virus to over 25 countries around the world in 2003 was attributed, in part, to the
long-haul airline network. Since the birth of commercial aviation at the beginning of
the twentieth century, airports have found themselves at the forefront of a worldwide
battle against the spread of tropical and infectious diseases, and a range of public
health interventions have been deployed to try and prevent pests and diseases being transported around the world aboard aircraft. This article reviews some of the public
health directives that were devised to prevent the spread of disease by air and explains
their implications for the design and operation of airports.