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How a Virus Spreads Through an Airplane Cabin (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Traveling by plane greatly increases our chances of getting sick, or so many of us are wont to believe. To be fair, it's not uncommon to come down with a nasty illness after we return from a vacation or business trip. But is flying the culprit? The latest research suggests the answer is no -- but much of it depends on where we sit. New research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that airline passengers infected with influenza -- a disease that spreads through the air -- aren't likely to infect other passengers who sit more than two seats to the left or right, or more than two seats in front or back. In other words, your chances of contracting the flu from an infected passenger are slim -- unless you're sitting within about three feet (one meter) of them. Given that three billion of us fly annually, combined with the popular conception that we often contract diseases inflight, it's surprising to learn that very few studies have looked into this issue in detail.
So how long does the flu virus sit on a surface?
Every time I see someone hacking up a lung on a plane I wonder how big a radius has that one person infected.
Then I think about how long the duration of the virus on a surface is.
Then I think of my inadvertent hand contact with such surfaces and the innocent brushing of my eyes or handling of something I might stuff in my mouth along with he virus.
I just don't buy what they are selling and I got my masters in public health with an emphasis in Tropical Disease.
Maybe diseases and their spread has changed somehow since I went to school?
I would think the front of the plane would be safer, due to the recycled fart theory of airflow prevalent in the back of the plane
I fly when no other option is available. I plan to for germs but if seated near a sick person my options are limited. Parachute please?
How do epidemics on those vessels differ from airplanes? Seems it would be even less likely to occur given the fresh air and far less cramped accommodations, yet haven't several occurred in the past few years?
...so as you are walking through the cabin that is fully seated you may be within that proximity to 3/4 the people on the plane at one time or another.
There was a memorable 1996 article in the New England Journal of Medicine examining transmission of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis by a passenger on a commercial airline flight.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/1...
Especially memorable is a seat map showing the index passenger's seat, and locations of others who showed positive TB skin tests.
3 billion people fly annually? Unlikely. My guess is around 500 million. Who writes this stuff?
Will you all please shut the fuck up with this crap? Aside from it being complete bullshit, this is not the forum for you to work out your hurt feelings for not successfully installing a socialist in our presidency.
Kindly fuck off.
It also works if you're using an old Apple Powerbook. Then your virus can infect *anything*, even computers based on completely alien technology.
What the hell does "wont to believe" mean?
English, motherfucker, do you speak it?
Wont != want
sure Ivan
Wait, I am way off base here, right? It's not that kind of virus, eh?
Well, why waste a perfectly typed comment? Hit submit.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Scientific studies have found that keeping a distance of 1 metre from infected (or potentially infected) individuals has a strong effect at limiting transmission. The disease studied this way that I looked up was meningitis. Flu and many other illnesses transmit in a similar way, via macroscopic water droplets.
Fast travel and long distance travel spreads disease at very high speed. You might sit next to a sick person and never get sick but then you go to the store and four people get sick and take it home and it goes from there. It is a very serious problem and short of stopping travel and tourism it is a hazard we all must bear.
That's Ivanka to you...
Of these mother fucking viruses on these mother fucking planes!
> In addition to recording the movements of passengers and crew, the team also collected air and surface samples from areas most likely to host microbes.
The article didn't mention the bathrooms, of which only a few service dozens of people who serially share a very small space.
I always see the sneezers sniveling and rubbing their running noses, then walk to the toilet and steadying themselves by touching every seat top on the way, the very same spots all the other passengers touch as well on their way to the toilets.
No need for airborne viruses.
I expect this low chance of infection is probably due to the constant airflow in the cabin. This airflow is heavily disturbed during (un)boarding when everybody gets up, starts getting their luggage, and then wait five more minutes in uncomfortable postures packed together half standing half still sitting, stretching, getting back to life, coughing a little. At that time also the air conditioning sometimes shifts in a different mode and temperature rises and flow changes. I expect most infections to take place during boarding and especially during unboarding.