Airport screening unlikely to stop flu, SARS spread
Tatiana
and influenza will probably not prevent the global spread of the
illnesses, health experts said on Friday.
If there is a major outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome) or influenza, air travel is the most probable route of
international infection.
But researchers at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) who
assessed the benefit of screening if an epidemic occurred said it would
not pick up enough cases to be worthwhile.
In the case of SARS the incubation period is too long for pre-flight
screening to offer any guarantee of spotting a carrier, while carriers
of influenza are already infective up to two days before symptoms
become apparent.
"The benefits are likely to be pretty small in terms of the number of
people you are likely to pick up," Dr Richard Pitman, of the HPA which
monitors infectious diseases, said in an interview.
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