Disease and Air Travel

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20977, 4 October 1933, Page 8

Disease and Air Travel

With the development of worldwide air services, allowing rapid transport over long distances, a new and difficult problem is presented for solution to the medical authorities of all countries to which air services extend A recent cable message from Sydney said that the health authorities were studying the question whether there was any danger of deadly Asiatic diseases being spread in the Commonwealth with the advent of the London-Aus-tralia air mail. The two diseases feared are yellow fever and cholera. The proposal is to establish medical

for the examination of air service passengers. The question of the spread of disease by mail arid passenger carrying aeroplanes is discussed by Dr. Arthur Massey, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Coventry, in a recently-published book, Epidemiology in Relation to Air Travel. In his preface Dr. Massey points out that speedier transport is equivalent to a reduction of distance and that against the momentous advantages, fraternal and commercial, bom of the development of air transport, there is the disadvantage that countries affected by certain major infectious diseases are brought nearer to countries which ordinarily enjoy freedom therefrom. The writer indi-, cates that the expedition of air travel is already such that journeys from distant infected countries are accomplished not uncommonly | within the incubation times of the major infectious diseases, such as plague, cholera, and yellow fever. Referring to air services to Great Britain, for instance, he says that journeys by air make it eminently possible for persons to land in Britain while incubating infections contracted in distant parts overseas. It is obvious that the same thing is equally possible for passengers landing in Australia. Dr. Massey proceeds to show that whereas the occurrence of cases of infectious diseases on board ship, with the possibility of infecting other passengers, can be dealt with as a dis-

closed emergency, which is provided for by routine measures, it would appear to be necessary in £he case of aircraft arriving from infected zones; to institute as a usual thing the same system of surveillance of passengers during an appropriate period after disembarkation. Another problem is the possibility of the accidental carriage in aircraft of infected mosquitoes, or of such uninfected mosquitoes as are capable of becoming vectors of infec-

tion if taken to territory containing infective material of, say, yellow fever or malaria. Again, sanitary control of aircraft differs from control of shipping because of the possibilities of landings by accident or design at unassigned places. The disposal of sewage from aeroplanes presents another consideration. Refuse can be disposed of by ships in the sea and aeroplanes crossing the sea can use the same natural sanitary repository, but the release of refuse from aircraft while crossing land might well produce outbreaks of infectious diseases. It is clear, says the writer, that any international code for sanitary control of aircraft will need to include an interdiction in respect of voidance of refuse from aircraft while over land. Dr. Massey emphasises that preventive measures associated with air traffic and epidemiology require to be international in their application, and that interested nations must be induced to confer in devising and applying a uniform sanitary code. He menaccorded careful consideration by tions that these matters have been the health organisations of the League of Nations and the Office International d'Hygiene Publique in consultation with the International Air Navigation Commission. In this work the British Ministry of Health is taking an important and constructive part. The text has been prepared of a proposed International Convention for the Sanitary Control of Aircraft and it is anticipated that the signatures of contracting countries will be applied at an early date.