Guidelines, law, and governance: disconnects in the global control of airline-associated infectious diseases

Grout, Andrea; Howard, Natasha; Coker, Richard; Speakman, Elizabeth M

doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(16)30476-5

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The diagnostic capacity and protocols applied in airport controls have been discussed using the experience from SARS [31,32]. Grout et al [33] identified several inconsistencies in infection control measures and major differences in how national and international legislation is enforced by airlines and airports. The differences in the diagnosing quality may affect the number of cases reported.…”

Section: Limitations To Predictive Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

Christidis

Aris

2020

IJERPH

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Air travel has a decisive role in the spread of infectious diseases at the global level. We present a methodology applied during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that uses detailed aviation data at the final destination level in order to measure the risk of the disease spreading outside China. The approach proved to be successful in terms of identifying countries with a high risk of infected travellers and as a tool to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in different countries. The high number of undetected or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, however, limits the capacity of the approach to model the full dynamics. As a result, the risk for countries with a low number of passengers from Hubei province appeared as low. Globalization and international aviation connectivity allow travel times that are much shorter than the incubation period of infectious diseases, a fact that raises the question of how to react in a potential new pandemic.Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 3356 2 of 15 information and air travel networks to produce a user-defined global map of risk distribution [9]. A generic tool that allows the estimation of the median early disease arrival time from around the world using air transport schedules was proposed by [10]. Air travel patterns were also employed by Bajardi et al. [11] in order to theoretically model the potential impacts of travel restrictions on the spread of an epidemic. Nevertheless, while travel and trade have been shown as relevant for the international spread of the 2009 A/H1N1 influenza, the slow deployment of control measures in countries with lower healthcare capacities led to spatial imbalances [12]. Air transport data have been used indirectly to measure the effective distance and the relative arrival time of a disease outbreak, with promising results when tested on historical data [13]. Based on the same premises, producing near real-time or now-casting predictions on the international spread of COVID-19 appeared to be based on scientifically sound principles [14].However, most expectations about the ability to predict the global spread of COVID-19 proved misleading or of limited use.This includes our own work, which we present here in order to discuss the reasons why most projections missed important aspects of the disease propagation dynamics. In our opinion, and as a part of the scientific process, it is important to publish and discuss even the negative results of research activities. The lessons learned from unsuccessful applications can be valuable for future work, either by improving current practices or by re-examining risk assessment from a new perspective. Especially in the case of predictive modeling, the wide body of literature that presents successful ex-post examples of possible value may give the false impression that the spatial aspects of disease propagation are more easily predictable than what is actually possible in reality.The question this paper is trying to answer is whether air passenger traffic alone can provide early information...

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Section: Limitations To Predictive Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

Christidis

Aris

2020

IJERPH

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“…The purpose of this study was to examine the content of the websites for the global commercial passenger airlines within the six major airline conglomerates to determine: a) the extent to which the airline websites contained information about infection control and prevention of infectious diseases, and b) to determine how useful that information was with respect to infection control and the prevention of infectious diseases. More than three billion passengers travel by air annually, with the majority of journeys occurring in less than 24 h [49]. This brings significant challenges for measures to minimise the spread of infectious diseases and to prevent and control infectious diseases outbreaks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Air travel has never been easier, cheaper or safer [1]. The speed, accessibility and efficiency of air travel sets it well apart from land and sea travel with respect to the volume and speed at which people travel around the world [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The speed, accessibility, efficiency and volume of air travel brings with it the challenges for the spread of infectious diseases, with particular implications for population and public health [1]. In recent years, there have been many documented outbreaks of infectious diseases associated with the movement of humans via air or other forms of travel [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also an established body of literature and research regarding infection control and the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases via sea travel, including guidelines focusing on the containment and prevention of gastrointestinal [25][26][27][28] and respiratory infectious diseases such as norovirus [29,30] and influenza [31,32], as well as other highly contagious infectious diseases [33][34][35][36][37]. There is however, by comparison, a dearth of corollary published literature and research on infection control and the prevention of infectious diseases associated with air travel [1]. While there is growing research exploring airborne spread of pathogens within aircraft [38][39][40][41][42][43][44], little of this appears to have been translated to passenger and staff health and wellbeing programs to contain and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Shaban

Sotomayor-Castillo

Malik

et al. 2020

Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

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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.

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Disability, Illness and Health Risks: Public Health and Epidemiology Approaches ☆

Quah¹

2018

Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences

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Guidelines, law, and governance: disconnects in the global control of airline-associated infectious diseases

Cited by 30 publications

References 22 publications

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

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

Disability, Illness and Health Risks: Public Health and Epidemiology Approaches ☆

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