No fly flu zones

The freeze on air traffic after the September 11 attacks delayed the 2001-2002 flu season, and researchers were able to confirm what many had long suspected -- air travel could help spread a bird flu pandemic very efficiently.

While there is no way to stop a pandemic completely, the researchers at Children's Hospital Boston said restricting air travel could delay the spread of a deadly virus and buy some time to prepare vaccines, drugs and take other measures.

"For the first time we've been able to show, using real data, that air travel spreads the flu, suggesting that reducing the number of air passengers might ameliorate a flu pandemic". . .

Full article here. Note that while the Reuters headline reads, "September 11 study shows flu spread by airplane", it does not read (nor does the study appear to address), "spread in airplanes". Putting filter masks on passengers in case of an epidemic would help cut transmission during flight, but how useful that would be in comparison to stopping movement by air entirely is quite another (and quite an interesting) question.

Posted by David on September 11, 2006 10:31 PM