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SARS Worries Back With the Winter Travel Season

Instead of wringing your hands, wash them.

October 13, 2003

By Sloane Joseph

Health Journals, The New York Times, Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) announcements—since the SARS outbreak earlier this year, there’s been a great deal of attention given to the risk of spreading microbial and viral infections during the winter travel season. With Thanksgiving coming up fast and Christmas sales just behind that, travelers should be aware of the health risks of air travel and of the precautions recommended to minimize them.

Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution

Worrying about SARS when you are just tired and dehydrated isn’t going to help anybody. On the other hand, withholding information about a serious and possibly highly contagious infection is a significant threat to the public health.

So, if you know that you’re going to be traveling by air this winter, knowing how to recognize SARS before you board should be a necessary part of the pre-flight checklist.

Consider Getting a Flu Shot

If you are going to be traveling internationally by air this winter and especially if you are over 65, you may want to consider getting a vaccination against influenza. Because no quick diagnostic test has yet been developed for SARS, other respiratory infections such as pneumonia or influenza can be mistaken for SARS.

In a letter-to-the editor published in the August 14 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors from Paris told the story of a man who had been diagnosed with pneumonia in an airport in Saigon. Even though there had been no cases of SARS in Saigon, the man’s high fever and cough combined with a concern by public health officials there that he might be infected prevented them from testing his sputum for pneumonia infection. The appropriate treatment was delayed and the man experienced respiratory failure.

There is still some disagreement among public health officials about whether the influenza vaccine should be discussed as a possible aid to the appropriate diagnosis of SARS. The CDC states that the influenza vaccine should not be used on a population-wide level for this purpose due to the less than 100% effectiveness of the vaccine and the possibility of being infected with a different respiratory disease leading to a high fever (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5239a5.htm).

On the other hand, the World Health Organization stated that increasing influenza vaccine coverage may make it easier to properly diagnose SARS, reducing the public health burden of both diseases (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/notes/2003/np22/en/).

Until there is a rapid diagnostic test, it may be that the best way to avoid getting caught up in SARS prevention is to prevent related illnesses before and during your travels. As only one in four of those in groups with a high-risk of developing serious complications of influenza, there is certainly room for increased vaccination.

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