Pneumonia outbreak in S.E.Asia affecting airlines

[indian airlines]

What with the war and everything, airline transport is as it is affected, now this outbreak of atypical pneumonia in South East Asia, that is spreading to Canada and Germany, is not really improving the situation.

Already many airlines flying from this region have cut down their flights drastically, because the number of pax has reduced.

None of these things is gonna help the airliners, some of which are already on the verge of bankrupcy.

Is this outbreak affecting USA as well?

Please feel free to post any thoughts...

Tanuj.

[raldrich]

it probably wont affect the US. I am here in Anchorage, Alaska (a stopover refuel point for many Asia flights), and we have Center for Disease Control personnel at the international terminals, both here and in Fairbanks, checking out folks on the international carriers, however very little of our traffic is Pax, but they are probably doing the same thing in Seattle, Honolulu, LAX, and SFO.

[Richard]

Personally, I'm not all that worried albeit two parents at my (and Indian Airlines') school have the illness. I rode the underground Saturday, it was then that I was most succeptible to the illness, yet I'm fine. Others however are being extremely precautious, they are wearing those air filters. What's next, gas masks? I shouldn't critisize them, they are only looking out for their health....

[aerpix]

We have no case here so far, but it is likely that it will spread all over Europe. Asian destinations are still very popular, I for myself was in Thailand in January/February. Don't worry, I am healthy .

Having disease control personnel at the gates will probably not help too much, as the incubation time is several days. So a passenger can arrive perfectly healthy at the gate, but already be infected, and have infected many more.

SARS is spread via drops as found in caughing, or in aircraft air-con systems. Therefore infection is likely, but no one finds out until you get the first symptoms.

The tricky thing is that the first symptons are quite similiar to a normal influenza, and only if you are going to see a doctor at the very beginning, you can get some relief. However, since it is as of now unknow whether SARS is a virus or is bacterial, anti-biotics may not help. So doctors can only give medicine for relief of the symptoms.

So what everybody should do is see a doctor immediately if he/she gets:
- heavy caugh
- high fever
- or other heavy symptoms of influenza

On the other hand side it is not yet epidemic, there's only a very small number of persons infected, so it may spread but is not considered to be an immediate danger.

Regards,
Peter