Passengers on a Beijing-Vancouver flight may have been infected with someone with measles. She herself was reportedly infected on a previous flight.
Measles in the air … Passengers on a plane are called to be vaccinated against the virus by the Public Health Agency of Canada. These people may have been infected by a traveler suffering from measles, who was on board Air China flight 991, from Beijing to Vancouver. The plane touched down at Vancouver International Airport on Saturday April 4 at 12:15 p.m. PST.
About ten cases
This traveler was probably infected himself during a previous flight between Beijing and Vancouver on March 21. Two people with measles were on the plane that day. Since then, nine more cases of measles have been reported, indicates the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. These people were present during this trip, or were in contact with the passengers. Health authorities declined to say whether the new case linked to the April 4 plane was among the airline’s flight personnel.
All passengers who have been exposed to the virus must therefore “check their immunization record and get vaccinated immediately [s’il y a lieu] Says the Public Health Agency of Canada, which recommends two doses of the vaccine for people born after 1970, and one dose for those born between 1957 and 1970 if they have never had the disease. Health authorities consider that people born before 1957 are immune to the virus and therefore do not need to be vaccinated.
Aircraft disease
According to the Astrium website (Airbus subsidiary), measles has become one of the main infectious diseases transmitted in airplanes. The International Health Regulations put in place by the WHO (World Health Organization) gives airlines the right to deny boarding to any person suspected of contagious disease, a right exercised by the United States and Canada.
But it is still necessary to identify cases of measles, which can ignore themselves, if the symptoms have not yet appeared. In reality, the health rules related to the air transport of sick people differ according to each company, and are not always very clear, as the news recently showed. A woman was indeed kicked out of an Alaska Airline plane because of her cancer and a state of health considered too weak, because she did not have a medical certificate. Airlines are subject to a precautionary principle, which is sometimes difficult to apply to reality.
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