FLYING AND DISEASE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 53, 31 August 1934, Page 16

FLYING AND DISEASE

IMPOSING A BARRIER .

INTERNATIONAL STEPS

The text of the Internationa] Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation —the first attempt, on a world-wide scale, to prevent the spread of disease by aeroplane—has been issued as.a White Paper, says Ihe "Daily Telegraph."

The convention was signed by the representatives of twenty-ttireo countries at The Hague in April last year. It has not been ratified by the British. Government. ■■. l(

It lays down regulations designed to avert ihe growing menace of the spread of serious infectious diseases—such, as plague, cholera, typhus, smallpox, and yellow fever—by means of tho rapidlyincreasing network of world airways.*

Hitherto slower means of travel havo enablecl such diseases to bo localised. For example, if a man infected, with typhus or'plague- were to board a ship from Bombay to London, tho disease would manifest itself long- before tho vessel reached London and the sufferer and all persons with "Whom he had. come in contact could be isolated.

Today, however, with the much more rapid air transport, it would be possible for a man infected with typhus or other disease to travel from one country to another and to pass on the disease to hundreds of other people before it became manifest. Thus there is a danger of the spread of serious epidemics.

Under the convention each signatory undertakes to provide an adequate sanitary organisation on every aerodrome used by aeroplanes to or .from other territories; establish special sanitary aerodromes, with the necessary staff and equipment for the examination and isolation of passengers and the disinfection of machines, where conditions''require;' and give adequate notification of ;the existence-' in -its territory ;of ■plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus, and smallpox.

General regulations for sanitary fir authorised aerodromes (i.e., aero-, dromes used for trims-territorial flying)

include: The empowering of the aerodrome medical officer to inspect the S'anitary'condition of aeroplane passengers and ercw and to prohibit tho transport of persons with symptoms of in-fectious-disease, except in special aircraft. . T ' ■ '■■''■.■'.■•

; Special regulations are made for territories infected -with plague, cholera, yellowl fever, typhus, and smallpox. These include: Thorough cleansing' of aircraft; medical inspection of passengers and crew and their effects; exclusion .of infected persons and contacts; extermination, of rats (in the case of plague) and of insects (in tho case of typhus); and surveillance of .persons suspected, of being infected.

Tho regulations are particularly strict in the case of -yellow fever. Every aerodrome in a country where yellow fever exists must bo situated at an adequate distance from any inhabited centre; provided with water arrangements protected against mosquitoes and kept as free from them as possible; provided with mosquito-proof dwellings for crews, staffs, and passengers.

Until such arrangements are made all aerial navigation with territories infected with yellow fever must be prohibited.