Air travel slowdown after 9/11 had public health impact

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

The drop in air travel after 9/11 slowed down the spread of flu, which may have implications for handling a pandemic.
After 9/11 there were, naturally, severe restrictions on air travel for a time. And this, say researchers at the Children's Hospital in Boston, had an unexpected bonus. The start of the 2001-2002 flu season was delayed and it peaked later. In 2002, flu mortality peaked on March 2, whereas in the years before and after it peaked around February 17. In France, where there were no restrictions on air travel, there was no delay in the spread of flu activity in the 2001-2001 flu season.

The study shows, for the first time, that air travel spreads flu and this has important implications in how pandemics - and the threat of them - ought to be handled. Restricting air travel has been suggested as one way of stopping person-to-person transmission of avian flu in Asia and Europe. Both the World Health Organization and the US Government are currently considering such restrictions to curb emerging pandemics. This new study suggests that putting such a ban in place could buy some valuable time to help manage a pandemic threat.

Source
PLoS Medicine 12th September 2006

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