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A flight of ASL Airlines France between Algeria and Perpignan in France was briefly quarantined Wednesday when a child on board was suspected of having cholera. And two international flights from American Airlines to Philadelphia on Thursday – one from Paris and the other from Munich – have landed with a total of 12 passengers assessed by health officials for flu problems and respiratory problems.
When symptoms of contagious diseases appear in the air, how do officials mobilize on the ground? What response mechanisms are in place? And how often are they activated?
A complex international network is in place at all times to combat the spread of infectious diseases. This includes global reporting of diseases, how and where they spread, and data integration.
This involves international, federal, state and local partners who, among other things, are involved in monitoring the travel experience, whether by land, air or sea, said Dr. Marty Cetron, Director of the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention Global Migration and Quarantine Division.
Thus, since 1996, the CDC is part of a mobilized effort to detect, protect and respond. 20 US ports of entry – those with the largest number of arrivals of passengers and international travelers, including animals – have priority. But all the points of entry have points of contact.
It is not uncommon to see a doctor answer at an airport, he explained. Oxiris Barbot, interim health commissioner for New York City, said his city saw five or six cases a year. But Cetron said the majority of cases occur after the passengers have moved.
In most cases, 80 to 90% of the time, the CDC and its partners work to recreate the story after a flight. For example, a person ends up in a hospital with measles and a health care provider concludes, based on the patient's travel history, that other passengers may have been at risk. It is at this point that the network goes into action, researching where the patient has been and who needs to be warned and controlled.
Sometimes, as was the case on the Emirates flight, a call reached JFK 30 minutes before landing. The airport, in turn, contacted the CDC. Enough of people on the run – many of them returning from Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – had symptoms to provoke the alarm. And since they came from the Arabian Peninsula, the worst fear was the emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
An organized system was ready to respond. The jet was not brought to the door to prevent the eventual spread of the disease. A team of officials has come up to do an assessment. The specimens were collected. EMS, firefighters and rescuers were there in case they were needed. Caitlin Shockey, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said the 549 people on board, passengers and crew, had been checked for temperature before most were able to leave.
Eleven people were taken to the hospital; two were tested positive for the flu and one had a respiratory infection. All except the one with the flu and pneumonia, were released the next morning, said Shockey.
In the affairs of Philadelphia, there were also sick passengers coming from Hajj. Officials did not warn them, however, until a flight attendant raised anxiety while passengers were crossing customs. Cetron said rallies that attract millions of people are ripe for epidemics.
The key is not to overreact or react, he said. "And when a system is well organized, we can react as we did."
