If you have symptoms and want to go out in public, see a dctor first. Your wife clearly has seen one and knows what she has and (it seems) that she is not generally contagious. That was my point.

Let's say you're on the last day of a vacation and will be flying home. You get ill and come down with a fever. I presume you would call the airline and postpone your reservation. Then, when you feel better, you can contact the airline and pay a change fee and probably a difference in fare. And when you're being a model citizen by not flying while ill you'll be more than happy to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars in hotel stays.

The part that's not rocket science is the realization that it's sometimes impractical not to fly while ill and that air travelers know and assume the risk of contracting an illness in flight. It really is quite simple - if you don't want to risk catching an illness on an airplane then don't travel on an airplane.

How exactly could you avoid going out in public if you go visit your doctor? Or are you implying that because you're going out for the sole purpose of seeing a doctor there's zero chance that you'll infect somebody?

When I had appendix problems I had a high fever. I was ill. I was also non-contagious. The point is that high fever does not mean everyone around me will get sick.

Simply put - a high fever is not always an indication of communicable illness.

Roll your eyes all you want if makes you feel better.

My point is that if someone goes to see a doctor then they are by definition out in public. But you want them not to go out in public to see anyone. You make no sense.

I fly a lot, 80-100 flight per year. Not as many as some here, but still a lot. It is inevitable that an illness and a scheduled flight will correspond. I have delayed departures, even postponed whole weeks of work, because of illness. I have had change fees waived because I changed a flight due to illness. I cancelled a cruise because of an illness that would have prevented my traveling had they learned of it but it was easily hidden. (I always buy trip insurance for cruises and it paid off in this instance.)

So, bottom line, I get it. I also know that when one is away from home it is not always possible to delay a return unless at tremendous cost, both in time and cash. In 20 years of heavy travel, I have traveled ill twice, both returns.

I also understand that every time I walk into an airport that I run the risk of being with ill people and I accept that risk as one of the risks of air travel. Sometimes people have to travel while ill, or at least make the decision to do so. I can neither control their decisions nor do I think that I have the right or authority to control their decisions. I can feel they made wrong decisions or think that I would have done differently, but the bottom line is that people will do what they want or need to do.

In the absence of regulatory authority of a government agency to control travel while ill, that is the way it will be. If and when that authority presents itself, the last that I want to implement it is the TSA.

Precisely! A high fever usually (but not always!) indicates an infection. Depending on where that infection is and the immune status of the person, the infection may or may not be communicable. For example, somebody who's immune-compromised (e.g., an AIDS patient) can get a very high fever from an infection with an organism that wouldn't make a person with a normal immune system ill.

There's a thread in OMNI about a FT'er that came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Not common in adults, but very common in children and it is a very, very uncomfortable illness to have. Unfortunately it is also fairly easy to spread. First symptoms? Flu-like symptoms, fever.

You can't presume a fever is always a sign of a non-communicable infection. Therefore when running a fever, presume that you have a communicable disease.

Why is that so hard to understand?

It's very easy to understand. But that's not the point.

If I have a trip planned and I get a fever prior to the trip it's off to see the doctor I go. If I'm too sick to travel I postpone the trip. If I'm homeward bound and I get a fever just before flying home and it's not possible to see a doctor prior to the flight I'm flying. Unless, of course, those who insist that nobody with a fever travels are willing to pay the expenses I would have to incur to postpone the homeward flight.