A NEW DANGER

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1930, Page 7

A NEW DANGER

■ DUE TO RAPID AIR TRAVEL. CARRIAGE OF DISEASE. , LONDON, September 14. The possibility of disease being carried from one country to another by passengers in aeroplanes or airships is causing isome anxiety to the public health authorities. According to the current issue of “The Lancet" the Permanent Committee of the International Office of Publ|o Hygiene has been considering the matter. It is known that mosquities very rarely travel on ships, but it is uncertain whether this holds true as regards aircraft. In India there is some anxiety that yellow fever might be introduced in this way by adult mosquitoes travelling on planes to Karachi, and. with the shortened line of transport between Bombay and Rangoon and Australia, there is a danger that the Dominion may be subjected to risk. In the ordinary way, the length ot the sea voyage from Rangoon to Australia is greater than the incubation period of plague and cholera, so that any passenger with either of these diseases would be noted before Australia was reached; but with a possible flying time of sixty-two hours, the risfc oif introducing these diseases becomes obvious. “The Lancet” points out that a person who had contracted smallpox could be transported from England by flight during the incubation period. Any method of dealing with the situation, sucli as quarantine at the landing stations, is difficult to apply and the length of time thus added to the journey would destroy the value of air transport. The quarantine periods for airships coming from deiinitely-infected areas have not been decided yet, but the situation will have to be faced, and it is to be hoped that it will not need the occurrence of an outbreak of disease to precipitate a serious situation. A special system of supervision will have to be devised.