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The aviation industry has previously minimized the risk of infection during flight. However, two recent studies show the opposite.
It is not clear to what extent the transmission of the coronavirus occurs on board aircraft. The aviation industry has reported that air quality on board aircraft is of OR quality and is often replaced and cleaned by so-called HEPA filters.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there have only been a few suspected cases of infection transmission on flights.
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New research now shows that a married couple likely infected cabin crew with the coronavirus on board a flight from Boston in the US to Hong Kong in March.
– Business class couples transmitted the virus.
It shows a preliminary version of a study published by the American Infection Control Agency (CDC), which appears in the renowned journal Nature.
According to the study, it was a business-class couple who transmitted the virus to two crew members. The couple had been traveling through Canada and the United States. They were diagnosed shortly after arriving in Hong Kong.
The two crew members were also diagnosed with the infection shortly after their arrival. One crew member was associated with business class, while the other crew member’s area of responsibility was not specified in the study.
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According to the study, genetic testing revealed that all four people were infected with an identical variant of the coronavirus that was widespread in the United States, but not in Hong Kong.
This suggests that both or one of the passengers transmitted the virus to crew members during the flight, say the authors behind the study.
“The only place where the four were together for a long time was inside the plane,” the study reads.
Genetic evidence
The researchers say that previous studies on transmission of infections on board aircraft lack genetic evidence, and that this is the first study to offer this type of result.
The researchers refer, among other things, to an informal survey conducted with 18 major airlines in the period from January to March. The investigation revealed only three suspected cases of transmission of infections from passenger to crew, but no suspected cases of transmission of infections between passengers.
“During January to March 2020, the International Civil Aviation Federation (IATA) received three reports of suspected cases of transmission of infections on board aircraft. Tracking the infection of two passengers who flew from China to Canada has not yielded as result, no evidence of secondary infection (transmission of infection, editor’s note) during the flight. However, test results for sars-cov-2 (the coronavirus) have been positive for hundreds of flight attendants, flight attendants, flight and pilots. At least two have died. Our results show that sars-cov-2 can be transferred on board aircraft. To prevent the transmission of viruses during travel, it is necessary to continue with infection control measures “, read in the study.
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IATA’s informal investigation with 18 airlines also refers to four suspected cases of transmission of infections between pilots, but it is unclear whether this happened on board the aircraft or in other circumstances.
It may have infected twelve in business class.
Another study, in which the US infection control agency CDC also published a preliminary version, reveals what appears to be a transmission of the infection from one passenger to another. This will be one of the first studies that have analyzed the danger and risk of transmission of the coronavirus on board aircraft.
Researchers have conducted further investigations of a group of infection dating back to a 27-year-old female passenger in business class.
The woman first developed symptoms such as a sore throat and cough on February 29. The next day she took a ten-hour flight from London to Vietnam. The woman still had symptoms. The 27-year-old was diagnosed with the coronavirus five days after his arrival. She was the only person on board the plane who had symptoms during the flight. Investigators later showed that it infected twelve people in business class, two passengers in economy class and one member of the crew in economy class.
Researchers suspect that the infection aboard the plane may have occurred from a droplet infection or from an airborne infection through aerosols, The Hill writes. According to Store Norske Leksikon, an aerosol is a gas with finely divided particles or droplets that are so small that they remain suspended in the gas.
Investigators do not rule out that contact between the infected and other business class passengers may have occurred at the airport or during boarding. While the contact between the woman and the two economy class passengers, in theory, may have occurred on arrival during passport control or when collecting luggage.
However, the study was unable to present any strong evidence indicating that the transmission occurred before or after the flight.
– The risk is real
«The risk of transmission of the coronavirus on board an aircraft is real and can cause groups of covid-19 of a significant size, even in business class where there are spacious seats, much more spacious than the established distance used to define close contact on airplanes, ”the study reads.
Both studies have been based on incidents that occurred before comprehensive infection control measures were implemented, such as bans and recommendations on the use of face masks.
The researchers, who studied the London-Vietnam flight group of infections, acknowledge that this is a limitation in the study.
“We had no data available on the use of face masks on board the aircraft by individual passengers, which would have given us the opportunity to conduct a more refined risk analysis.” “The masks were not widely recommended or used on board aircraft in early March, especially among travelers from Europe,” the study read.
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