GERMS BY AIR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 12

GERMS BY AIR

INDIAN PRECAUTION^

MOSQUITOES AND FLEAS

LONDON, July 23.

The India Office" has formally notified Imperial Airways, Limited, that henceforth no air liner will be allowed to enter India unless nine days have elapsgd from the time it has left Khartoum.

Imperial Airways, which has flown the route for years, has protested, hut to no purpose. It has emphasised that there has never been a single ease of plague or yellow fever traced to importation by one of its machines.

Until last week Imperial Airways ’planes flying from Khartoum to India kept closely to schedule, attempting to cover ihe distance in the shortest possible time compatible with comfort and safety. The Indian Government's fear of plague-carrying 'planes has upset all that.

On all steamship routes sanitary officers have perfected systems of inspection and quarantine, and methods of fighting germs which may be carried by boat. And now, alarmed by the danger of air-liners carrying with them from eastern countries plague germs ’which ‘have never been seen ip Europe before, scientists are working on similar plans for aircraft. Mosquitoes arc small enough to ride almost unnoticed on any ’plane. So arc fleas. Yet one mosquito may tarry info an uninfected country living germs of yellow fever or malaria. One flea may hold and spread the germs of bubonic plague. ' ' In steamer travel most scattered germs and insects die during the trip; th6re is time for infection to passengers to become visible, enabling then to be quarantined on arrival. With air travel, however, the time taken for the journey is usually so short that infected insects may easily survive and latent germs can develop.