Influenza, Other Respiratory Disease Transmission During Flights

HealthDay News — The probability of direct transmission of respiratory diseases is low for passengers on transcontinental US flights not seated in close proximity to an infectious passenger, according to a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Vicki Stover Hertzberg, PhD, from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues chronicled the behaviors and movements of individuals in the economy cabin on single-aisle aircraft on 10 transcontinental US flights. Based on these data, transmission of respiratory viruses during flights was simulated.

The researchers found low probability of direct transmission to passengers not seated within 1 row or 2 seats of an infectious passenger. To measure the true pathogen burden, environmental samples were collected during the flights from the air and hard surfaces. Of the 229 samples tested, results of quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays for 18 common respiratory viruses were all negative, although 8 of the flights were during influenza season.

“This data-driven, dynamic network transmission model of droplet-mediated respiratory disease is unique,” the authors wrote.

Disclosures: The authors received support from The Boeing Company; one author is an employee of Boeing.

Reference

Hertzberg VS, Weiss H, Elon L, et al. Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights [published online March 19, 2018]. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi:10.1073/pnas.1711611115