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As the number of confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases continues to rise, many travelers are experiencing heightened concerns about their health while flying.
Experts, though, say that for the most part, flyers should take the same precautions now that they always should.
“I think it is important that anybody, when they fly … should practice universal precautions. That’s a given on any flight, at any time,” said Dr. Robert Quigley, regional medical director for the travel risk management firm International SOS and its subsidiary MedAire.
Scientists aren’t yet certain how Covid-19 spreads, but the consensus opinion is that transmission occurs via respiratory droplets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such droplets can be spread directly between people who are within approximately 6 feet of each other via coughs and sneezes. A person might also be able to contract the virus indirectly by touching an infected surface and subsequently putting their hand in their mouth or rubbing their nose or eyes.
Dr. Mark Gendreau, an aviation health specialist who is the chief medical officer at Beverly Hospital in the Boston area, said, “When you’re traveling, you’ve got to be incredibly mindful of where your hands are, because our hands transmit 80% of infectious diseases that are known.”
Both Quigley and Gendreau emphasize hand sanitation as a leading precaution against contracting viruses and recommend that flyers carry hand sanitizer on the plane.
Gendreau said he has a routine when he gets on a plane. After fastening his seat belt, he takes his seatback tray table down and sanitizes it, then returns it to its upright position. Next, he adjusts the air vent. Then he sanitizes his hands. He also sanitizes his hands after trips to the lavatory and before eating.
Sanitizing, or handwashing, can’t be done haphazardly, however. Gendreau suggests doing either for 20 to 30 seconds — long enough to get to both sides of the hands as well as between the fingers and underneath the cuticles. At a 2016 TED talk, the physician had the audience sing “Happy Birthday to You” with him twice to illustrate how long a thorough handwashing should take.
Handwashing may prove to be especially useful against Covid-19. A study published this month in the Journal of Hospital Infection postulates that the virus can survive as long as nine days on surfaces at room temperature.
Gendreau said that if he has to scratch his face, he makes a point of doing so with his arm rather than his hand.
With their crowded confines and lack of fresh air, many travelers think of airplanes as veritable traps for airborne germs. That’s not true, Quigley said. With some exceptions in the regional-aircraft category, planes are equipped with hospital-grade air filters. Such filters remove 99.5% of bacteria and virus particles from the environment once an aircraft is in the air, he said, though they don’t function as efficiently while the plane is on the ground.
Nonetheless, infection remains a possibility. The World Health Organization says infected flyers can transmit a virus to people within two rows on either side of them. A 2018 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) says the at-risk zone extends one row on either side of an infected passenger.
One key strategy to ward off the risk of airborne contraction, Quigley said, is to keep the air vent above your seat open.
“I’m a firm believer that doing that keeps the area around you free if somebody is coughing,” he said.
As to where to sit, the PNAS paper suggests that one’s risk of infection is lowest in a window seat and highest in an aisle seat — at least on flights similar to the transcontinental routes examined in the study.
The reason, the authors found, is that people sitting in a window seat get up the least, which brings them within transmission range of the fewest people. Those in an aisle seat get up the most, and they also come within close range of individuals walking past them in the aisle.
One common precaution that won’t work against contracting a virus in flight is a standard-issue face mask. Such masks, Gendreau said, do prevent someone who is already sick from pushing his or her infected germs into the plane’s environment when they cough or sneeze. However, they don’t stop someone from breathing in a virus droplet.
Gendreau, Quigley and public health bodies recommend that sick people avoid flying.
One type of mask that does work is the FDA-approved N95 fitted mask, which blocks at least 95% of droplets, according to the FDA. However, such masks can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Gendreau said he would wear an N95 mask to protect against Covid-19 while flying in China right now or in any other future area of infection.
Quigley said that as long as the outbreak continues, flyers traveling to the Eastern Hemisphere should be ready for long lines, especially upon entry to a country. He suggests booking flexible itineraries and said people who have cold symptoms should be aware that they might be questioned or barred from a flight.
Source: travelweekly.com
