Originally Posted by pdhenry
I have to wonder how much additional risk is borne by people who spend more time in planes?
Before I moved this thread here, I did a little surfing around to see just how travel related this topic is. There are quite a few sites that talk about people who travel in planes being at increased risk for colds and flu.
Here's info and a link to one of them. The site gives some suggestions for minimizing your risk.
Flying does seem to put us at a higher-than-normal risk for picking up a cold or flu bug. A study last year (2002) from the University of California at San Francisco showed that about one in five passengers comes down with a cold within a week of a flight, about four times the risk you would have if you stay home.
http://www.drweil.com/u/QA/QA315144/