Avoid H1N1 Virus by Flying First Class; Also Avoid Cramped Seats, Dirty Blankets and Crying Babies

For some reason a group of scientists actually conducted a study that showed people who fly economy class are more likely to contract the H1N1 virus on board an airplane than people who fly first class. Had they looked, they may have also noticed that people in economy class also get shoddier service and barely enough leg room to accommodate a petite sardine.

As spun by MedPage Today, a website that helps doctors get up to speed on the complicated medical information filtered down through the popular media to their patients, physicians should counsel their patients to think twice before flying economy class this winter. The MedPage article advised doctors to warn patients "the risk of H1N1 infection is greater among air travelers in economy class compared with those in first class."

You think?

Before dismissing it as just another pointless "What else is new?" research project, some interesting data and policy implications emerged from the study, "Calculating the potential for within-flight transmission of influenza A (H1N1)," which was conducted by the Center for Biomedical Modelling at UCLA.

Coffee? Tea? Swine Flu?

Most importantly, perhaps, the popularity of air travel to far-flung lands will likely continue to create a series of pandemic flu bugs, such as the H1N1 virus, as well as other contagious diseases (remember SARS?), by confining multiple people in a crowded sealed container in which large infected air droplets are transmitted via re-circulated cabin air from one sick person to myriad fellow passengers.

"Our results imply that one individual traveling by plane, by infecting other travelers on the same flight, could cause multiple simultaneous outbreaks in different geographic regions, rather than causing only one outbreak," said Bradley G. Wagner, PhD, a co-investigator of the H1N1 airplane study.

On a more controversial note, this latest finding about the spread of H1N1 via commercial aircraft could result in public health policy that would inflame class warfare (think Rush Limbaugh proclaiming "I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American healthcare system" after receiving Cadillac hospital care in Hawaii) based on UCLA researcher Wagner's frank conclusion: "Quarantining passengers who travel in economy class on long-haul flights could potentially be an important control strategy this winter, but there is no point in quarantining passengers in first class."

No big deal. The rest of us can watch the Travel Channel in the safety of our H1N1-free homes and have our children fetch our soft drinks and peanuts.

Sources:

Wagner BG, et al "Calculating the potential for within-flight transmission of influenza A (H1N1)" BMC Med 2009; 7: 81. DOI:10.1186/1741-7015-7-81.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/SwineFlu/17853

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100102/people_nm/us_limbaugh