Risk of Infection - SARS, Avian or Swine Flu, and the Common Cold During Air Travel

Clearly Swine Flu, Avian Flu, SARS and the common cold is being spread further and faster than ever before by air travel. This is speeding up the rate at which these bugs mutate.

Obviously bugs that impact human health evolve much faster than humans genes can evolve to fight them.

Add air travel into the mix and the ability of bugs to spread and evolve increases exponentially. Consider this incredible animation of global flight patterns:

The recent global health alert over Mexican Swine Flu draws attention to the risks we all face on this increasingly crowded and interconnected planet. The number of flights globally every day is staggering and every air plane full of passengers is exposed to between 20 and 100 times the risk of infection compared to the average city dweller.

A survey by scientists at Victoria University in Canada revealed that the risk factor for the common cold increased to levels to between 12 and 60 colds per year compared to 3 to 4 cold infections per year for land based commuters. The range is more about the way the statistics were calculated than any lack of accuracy. In lay terms, air passengers surveyed averaged 23 times the infection rate of land based commuters (traveling on buses or trains).

It seems that passengers on modern high tech aircraft get less fresh air than ever before. To reduce fuel costs, aircraft introduce less fresh air and so save on heating it. In case you are wondering, pilots are fed separate fresh air at 10 times the level of the passenger cabin. They have to stay alert and healthy. Air is recirculated and filtered but oxygen levels in the cabin drop making passengers & cabin crew much more likely to pick up an infection. So reducing your carbon footprint while flying is increasing the likelihood of you catching something!

A side effect of reducing fresh air feed is that humidity levels in most commercial aircraft is between 5% and 10%, or dryer than in a desert. Your natural defense against air borne viruses and bacteria is the mucus layer in your nose and throat. This mucus dries up at low humidity. Once it dries it can no longer trap viruses and other pathogens and transport them to the stomach where they are destroyed by our digestive juices. Combine this with low oxygen levels and maybe a compromised immune system and the result is predictable and now verified.... at least for the common cold.

No studies have been done on SARS, Avian Flu or Swine Flu yet but since these are all considered highly contagious, logic dictates that the risks could be many time higher.

You can wear a mask and drink lots of water to keep your mucus from drying out, nasal sprays and mouth wash may help but some of these contain alcohol and they can do more harm than good.

The best defense is an intelligent immune system programed to attack the bugs that get past our nose and throat mucus "front line". Without a "smart" immune system we are terribly vulnerable.

There is intense interests in studies that have demonstrated that dosage with Colostrum or Colostrum derived compounds can boost immune system performance. This may be our best chance in the fight against rapidly evolving viruses like Swine Flu, Avian Flu and the common cold especially when flying.