Flying and the Flu
 

After hearing so much talk especially in NYC about doing all we can to curtail the spread of the flu, I started thinking about long-haul and short-hault flights. At the gate, are the airlines doing what they can to disinfect each seat, armrest, tray table, personal TV, remote, bathroom door....everything in between flights? Is there more of a concerted effort for long-haul flights vs short-haul? Up front vs economy?

I'm flying right now and have seen no evidence of any extra efforts. I think it's safe to say that we are all on our own on this and cannot rely on anyone else to sterilize a public area.

about 4 weeks ago, i got on a tatl. while at the airport, i started to become ill. i got on the plane. had a norovirus. could not get up to get off the plane. got a wheelchair to bus, and car to hospital. what do you think i'm supposed to do. when returning from bcn in feb, i came down with pneumonia. same hospital. what am i supposed to do. walk up to the ua desk, and tell them i don't feel so good, and i need a permit to fly tomorrow? or the day after, or whenever i feel up to it?? we did by the way have travel ins. but i never thought to spend an extra week in lyon on travel ins.

I doubt they pay any extra attention.
I bring alcohol swaps and disinfectants myself just in case even though the disinfectant spray is more for the removal of cigarette order. :D

My wife got me in the habit of briging desinfectant and wipes... And rub the whole seat down.

Do they have 100ml size of that disinfectant spray? :confused:

Something like this is available in the us.
http://www.lysol.com/cleaning-produc...ay-travel-size

I use fabric odor remover with disinfectant made by LG that I bought in Korea.
It comes in 100ml bottle and should kill 99.9% of germs.

I had no idea. Thanks for this. Will be picking some up for sure.

1. No.
2. Apparently not.
3. Apparently not -- same as usual, even as there are differences between the cabins.

Yep, as usual. The flu sucks, but just prepare yourself with sanitizer/wipes, sleep, vitamins, and whatever else helps. Gotta look out for yourself!

Get vaccinated. It's your best defense.

That which does not kill you makes you stronger.

The airlines doing something proactive - HAHAHAHA. Every time I get one of those little wash towels I use them to wipe the grime off the arm rests and tray table. You think the airlines are doing to actually try to make a plane germ free - HAHAHAHAHA.

IMHO society has germophobia much all brought about companies trying hoc disinfectants so they make you think there is an issue when there is really not. Just because there is a germ present does not make it an issue.

As for flu vaccinations, meh the last I read was they are 58% effective. A waste of time and money unless one has a compromised immune system.

If you want hedge your bets, eat healthy, get some exercise, and get a good night's sleep.

While it's true that the vaccine is only moderately effective it will provide at least some measure of protection for many of those who aren't completely immunized. And the notion that being repeatedly ill somehow strengthens or toughens people is just not accurate.

:rolleyes: So I would gain strength by getting my legs amputated?

I certainly agree with that.

A 58% reduction in the chance of catching the flu is not a waste of time and money in my book. A flu shot takes a few $ and a few minutes (I got mine at a pharmacy that I would have visited anyways.) The social good of reducing the chance of spreading the disease is itself a good enough reason to get the shot.

Sure, that's probably not what 58% number actually represents, but even if the number were 20% it would still be worth it.
Do those things too. Note that exercising enough to make a difference takes far more time and money (a gym membership, purchase of running shoes, and/or other associated costs) than a flu shot. By a cost/benefit analysis, exercise is probably far worse an investment than a flu shot.

Any available vaccine which reduces my chances of infection, even to "58%", is overwhelmingly worth receiving. Add the additional benefit of reducing the seriousness of the potential illness, and avoiding the vaccine becomes almost ridiculous. Then figure in some factor with which vaccinated individuals are less likely to pass along the illness to others, and ridiculous is reduced to just plain stupid, if not near criminal.

As it is, flu or not, the airlines can barely clean the lavs, much less effectively "disinfect" the cabin. "Sani-wipes"? Some modest local protection, but offer no defense against the most common vector, the moisture-laden exhalations of fellow passengers traveling in the nearly-sealed aluminum cocoon of the a/c.

^

I fly every week (see my OpenFlights link in the sig) and my job (academic) requires me to interact with tens or hundreds of people per week. Mrs. ralfp works in healthcare. In retrospect it was almost unconscionable for me to wait until last week to get the flu shot.

Was vaccinated in October.

That's the answer for my roundtrip flights between JFK and LHR. Just because one is vaccinated is no guarantee that one won't catch the flu. The spread of the flu is apparently very much out of control in NYC. Use it on the seat, arm rests, tray table, magazines, door knobs, etc.

As for sick passengers on board, not much anyone can do especially if they sneeze or cough without covering their mouths.

Just noticed of a weird "fever video camera" in JNB.
Before getting to immigration, seems to change colour of your image on a screen in case of flu. No idea how reliable it is.

I was vaccinated in October, caught something flu-like in early November and again in late December. I'm frankly tired of so-called experts saying that the vaccine was very effective and then quickly changed to "somewhat" effective. Frankly, they are simply making an educated guess with the flu shot.

Remotely taking your skin temp looking for a high fever, and if you 'score' you get pulled side for a secondary.

See: http://gogreece.about.com/b/2009/06/...flu-camera.htm

As a graduate student working in virus pathogenesis and vaccine development (my work is with hemorrhagic but I did some with flu and encephalitic) I think I can respond to this. Do you have any idea the difficulty in making a vaccine? The flu vaccine that comes out every year is a pretty amazing achievement. They have to analyze an enormous amount of data from the satellite labs in Asia and try to predict out of all that data what is most likely to come here. This is months in advance. Can you tell me honestly everything that you are going to do and every person you will interact with in the coming months? From that point they need to start generating the vaccine (egg based still main supplier I believe), test it, and get it distributed before the flu 'season' here in the US. This is a fairly major accomplishment they do every year.

People who complain about the protective nature don't fully understand the numbers. There is always the chance the vaccine given was predicted incorrectly making it nearly 0% effective against whatever emerging strain is actually hitting the US (think swine flu a few years back). That brings the number down. Then you have a certain percentage of the population which have a compromised immune system and either don't generate neutralizing antibodies or a weak response. This brings that % effectiveness down. So we come to that 50 to 60% effectiveness number. Ever heard of herd immunity? Even at 50 something percent, if everyone got it then those who aren't protected won't have to worry about it as much as they are less likely to run into someone infected. It won't wipe out the flu (it still has animal reservoirs unlike polio and small pox) but it could consistently reduce the number of infections by hundreds of thousands of cases if not millions. Seems like a pretty big money game right there for businesses and people.

Considering how cheap, easy, and effective the vaccine is, I suggest everyone without an allergy or immune disorder get it. There is very little reason not to. And yes to your comment it may be an educated guess at effectiveness, but then so is most of life. If you had a 50% chance of winning the lottery, is it no longer worth it? And yet, somehow, the US is still at around 30 to 40% adult compliance. What a waste of a pretty awesome feat of science.

End Reading Rainbow - the more you know rant :)

You are completely out numbered
 

http://xkcd.com/1161/

You are completely out numbered.

http://xkcd.com/1157/
(except FlyerTalk would probably be a big slice)

http://xkcd.com/574/

xkcd is great.

Herd immunity is why a pool of professionals are pushing for more and more people to take vaccines for more and more things. The HPV vaccine for boys as well as girls is but an example of that, much in hope of reducing women's cervical cancer rates.

Well said pattermj.

Physician agreeing with above. At my hospital, and many others, failing to get vaccinated is a terminable offense.

I too am fastidious with hand sanitizer when I travel (well, also when I'm not traveling). Use paper towels to open restroom doors and then, back at your seat, sanitize. I always use cutlery, not hands for eating, even sandwiches. I've also done some travel in place where MDR TB is pandemic and wore a respirator (looks like a hospital facemask) routinely in public. If I was traveling this flu season, which is reportedly early and sever in the US, I would wear a facemask on my flight, especially in a high density situation like economy or on a bus/train. This seems to be more socially acceptable in Asia, but I would definitely encourage anyone who feels even slightly febrile or 'fluish' to get some disposable facemasks from a drugstore to protect others.