Global commercial passenger airlines and travel health information regarding infection control and the prevention of infectious disease: What's in a website?

Abstract

A B S T R A C TBackground: Air travel has never been easier, cheaper or faster, with large volumes of people travelling around the world. These factors increase the risk of the spread of infectious diseases by air travel. Little is known, however, about the extent to which airlines provide information to passengers on infection control and measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. This study examined the websites of the global commercial passenger airlines to see if they contained information about infection control and prevention of infectious diseases and appraised the clinical usefulness of that information. Method: A cross-sectional text-based analysis of the 73 airline websites from the six global commercial passenger airline conglomerates was performed to identify information about infection control and prevention of infectious between July and August 2019. Results: Of the 73 airline websites, less than half (n = 35, 28.6%) contained information deemed useful for passengers. While there was a range of general health advice within the websites, there was limited information about infection control and preventing infectious diseases. A minority of websites contained information about vaccination status prior to travel, and to a lesser extent handwashing and hand hygiene, with very few including disease-specific advice or preventive measures. Conclusions: Airline websites are an underutilised source of information for infection control and the prevention of infectious diseases. Providing passengers with information on basic infection control and prevention measures may support the global efforts against the spread of infectious diseases.

Air travel in a COVID-19 world: Commercial airline passengers’ health concerns and attitudes towards infection prevention and disease control measures

“…Prior to COVID-19 travelling by air had never been easier or cheaper. 1,2 More than 4.5 billion people travelled by air worldwide in 2019. 3 The accessibility, safety and efficiency of global air travel has, however, brought challenges for the prevention and control of infectious diseases.…”

“…Until recently, travel health advice provided to commercial airline passengers focuses mostly on managing oedema, jet lag, dehydration, and the risks of venous thromboembolism (VTE) 18,19 , and not on preventing the spread of infectious disease. 1,2 Prior to COVID-19 few commercial passenger airlines provided passengers with infection prevention and disease control advice, with very limited information in their inflight magazines 2 and websites 1 .…”

An Investigation of the General Population’s Self-Reported Hand Hygiene Behaviour and Compliance in a Cross-European Setting

“…Good hand hygiene behaviour and compliance is recognised as being the most effective method in preventing the spread of such diseases especially when travelling abroad [ 12 , 13 ]. It is important to wash and dry hands well at key times such as after using the toilet, after coughing or sneezing into hands and before preparing or eating food [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Domestic Saudi Arabian Travellers’ Understanding about COVID-19 and Its Vaccination

“…The questionnaire was self-administered, structured, and contained closed-ended questions. It was devised following the examples of several previous studies that dealt with the COVID-19 vaccination [19][20][21][22][23][24]. The questionnaire was then adjusted to suit Saudi Arabian travellers and was pilot tested to ensure its validity.…”