Funny scene at JFK airport in New York on Wednesday, September 5, where a plane was forced to be removed from the terminals due to an epidemic of flu among passengers. About 100 of them complained of cough, fever and vomiting. Ten had to be hospitalized.
Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday (3 p.m. in France), the Airbus A380 of the Emirates company from Dubai had to be put away from the terminals of JFK airport in New York. Of the 521 passengers on board, 106 presented with symptoms, ranging from cough to fever and vomiting.
This is crazy. Apparently there is over 100 people sick on the bottom floor, so happy I’m up top, it’s a double-decker plane 380
– Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) September 5, 2018
No passengers in danger
Ten of them were then taken to hospital, including three passengers and seven crew members. “They are in stable condition”, specifies Oxiris Barbot, head of the health services of New York, who even adds to have “given them pizza”. After being examined, the rest of the passengers were then able to return to their terminal normally.
The head of health services announced a flu epidemic on the plane. The reason given for this sudden and rapid epidemic is that several passengers went on August 19 to Mecca, on the occasion of the pilgrimage, where an epidemic of influenza quickly spread among the 2.4 million faithful. .
In an airplane, bacteria die but viruses spread
To understand how such an epidemic is spread in an airplane, the American media The verge asked a former US Air Force medic, Allen Parmet. He explains that infections “have a hard time spreading in an airplane because the air is very dry” and kills the most sensitive bacteria and prevents the spread of others.
Conversely, he explains that “viruses are easily spread” via droplets which will quickly evaporate before passing through the vents, the air of which passes through the cabin and circulates around the passengers. Catching a virus from an airplane is therefore common.
Allen Parmet concludes by explaining that the worst case scenario of airborne disease would be smallpox, which is highly contagious and epidemic. This disease takes ten days to become truly contagious, so infected people could travel around the world without noticing. However, if you have had smallpox, you have about 10 days to get vaccines and antiserum. A scenario worthy of a disaster film since, specifies the former doctor, “there are only two places in the world where the smallpox virus currently exists”.
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