Hey everybody! I'm a longtime lurker and first-time poster.

This week I was waiting for takeoff on a 6-hour domestic flight and overheard a woman on her phone in the seat directly behind me. She said those two words that strike dread into any flyer: "I'm sick."

She mentioned that she had just connected from a long international flight and sounded optimistic that she was getting better. An hour later, she couldn't stop coughing. I'm talking about hundreds of coughs per hour. I don't have any indication it was something exotic, but it was at least a cold or flu. I felt terrible for her and nervous for me.

There's been an assortment of FT threads on handling coughing, sneezing, hacking and wheezing passengers. Many suggest offering some tissue so they're reminded to cover up. Others point out the obvious precautions: hand washing, sleep, lowering intensity of workouts, vitamin c, hydrating, etc. There was also some discussion of masks and debate over how effective they are. Some don't think they help the wearer, but if the wearer is sick it may protect others. I happened to have an N95 surgical mask in my bag and wore it while I was sleeping. It wasn't very comfortable to wear for hours, but it gave me some (potentially false) peace of mind. Maybe I should have offered it to her, but there was no wifi and I didn't get the idea until I finally got on FT after we landed.

It's 2014, isn't there something more effective that flyers can do to stay healthy when fellow passengers are sick?

Studies show that usually people get sick from the things they touch aboard a plane, not from being in proximity to someone who is sick.

I for one continue to suffer acute nausea every time I see a $misek video before takeoff...

Oh you have no idea how much I hate this. For some reason, I am always seated next to the guy that can't stop coughing, sneezing or blowing his nose. I catch things easily so I dread this everytime I fly.

I've flown on 40 legs this year, and I have a 100% (yes, 100%) rate of either being seated directly next to, in front of, or behind a sneezing/coughing person. My string of bad luck is getting laughable, except I'm down with a summertime cold right now after sitting directly in front of a child with one on Saturday. Many times, I'll be next to the one sick person in F or one of only three or four in Y actively hacking (and I've diligently observed the plane away from my seat to confirm this isn't just paranoia), but they have invariably ended up next to me.

The best reaction I've seen was on a May SFO-EWR leg where the guy directly in front of me was coughing up a lung. The guy next to him kept saying, "christ!", "you've got to be kidding me!" every time the guy coughed, until he finally had enough, stood up and said, "this is b.s." and stormed back out the jetway to get a seat assignment change away from the sick guy.

This time of the year it could just be allergies. They've been hitting me pretty hard for the last 4 weeks.

If she was behind you, you're probably OK because air flows front to rear in the cabin.

More air travel builds immunity. Had the same thing happen SSA-MIA. She wouldn't f ing stop hacking, right next to me in J. I turned the air vent to blow "away" and kept my fluids up, all with high alcohol content.

Get your flu shot, get sleep and don't worry too much about it.

i think that although some air is bleed air from outside, a considerable amount of the cabin air is recycled. just packed full of germs. to be safe, one should get a bubble, and an oxygen bottle. do not use a nitrogen/oxygen mix, as one can get bent from that.

Stay at home?

Use Clorox wipes to wipe down everything in the immediate
vicinity of your seat.

Avoid touching anything that is not in the immediate vicinity
of your seat and then touching yourself.

And then there are the airborne germs one may breathe
after the sick person has sneezed, coughed, etc. These can
travel a long distance so you are not safe even separated by
a seat or two.

You might cut your risk by wearing a mask but there is some
debate on that.

If you decide to wear the mask you need to decide when to
start wearing it... on the taxi ride to the airport? ...inside the
terminal? ...inside the plane? Fact is, you are at risk of catching
something the minute you step outside your home assuming of
course you are not already sick or are in contact with someone
sick.

There is some rather unfortunate and medically inaccurate "advice" on this thread but I'd rather call attention to the suggestion that you wear a mask.

What does that accomplish? Unless it is a HEPA filter mask it will not do you much good in terms of keeping you from breathing in some sort of "germ." What it may very well do is freak out a whole bunch of other people, especially the ones who might be sitting next to you. This assumes the airline folks will even allow you to board the plane.

As to that notion that the air flows from the front to the back of a plane; that may be but my worry is that once it actually gets to the back of the plane it somehow manages to get back to the front again.

Handwashing and intact skin are probably your two best defenses.

Meh, so long as they don't puke near me, I can deal with it.

There have been some studies done where it was suggested that
one raised the odds of not catching the flu by wearing
a mask...

http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/2/275.full

Specifically, the N95 variety.

On a YVR-HKG flight a couple of years ago,there was a fella in the seat behind that kept coughing and sneezing,without covering his mouth.I didn't say anything but gave a few "looks".I got sick within a couple of days in HK,cough,cold,fever....wouldn't surprise me if it was as a result of that disgusting git from the flight.

Besides covering his face with the small cushion they provide...any suggestions as to what I should have done?