DISEASE BORNE BY ’PLANE

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1934, Page 8

DISEASE BORNE BY ’PLANE

STEP TO PREVENT SPREAD The text of the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation —the first attempt, on a world-wide scale, to prevent the spread of disease by aeroplane—was issued recently as a White Paper. The Convention was signed by the representatives of twenty-three countries at The Hague in April last year. It has not been ratified by the British Government. It lays down regulations designed to avert the growing menace of the spread of serious infectious diseases — such as plague, cholera, typhus, smallpox and yellow fever —by means of the rapidly increasing network of world airways. Hitherto slower means of travel have enabled such disease to be localised. For example, if a man infected with typhus or plague were to board a ship from Bombay to London, the disease would manifest itself long before the vessel reached London and the sufferer and all persons with whom he had come in contact could be isolated. ■ To-day, however, with the much more rapid ah' 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 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 or authorised aerodromes (i.e., aerodromes used for trans-territorial flying) include: The empowering of the aerodrome medical officer to inspect the sanitary condition of aeroplane passengers and crew and to prohibit the transport of persons with symptoms of infectious disease, except in special aircraft. Special regulations are made for territories infected with plague, cholera, yellow 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 the case of typhus); and Surveillance of persons suspected of being infected. The regulations are particularly strict in the case of yellow fever. Every aerodrome in a country where yellow fever exists must be: 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, staff and passengers. Until such arrangements are made, all aerial navigation with territories infected with yellow fever must be prohibited.