Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1711611115
• Publication Date: 2018-03-19T19:16:25Z
• Authors: Vicki Stover Hert...; Howard Weiss; Lisa Elon; Wenpei Si; Sharon L. Norris; ; Helen Baker; Matthew Brouillette; Samantha Campillo; Elizabeth Charles; Megan Cohen; Michelle Dynes; Jiaxiang Gai; Kimberly Gajewski; Rachel Gordon-Rob...; Jose Guillen; Xavier Fernandez; Edith Higgins; Tiffany Hoyte; Shirin Jabbarzadeh; Valerie Mac; Lisa Matz; Carrie Oliver; Sudeshna Paul; Andrea Plotsky; Kristin Renneker; Jennifer Runkle; Amanda Schaupp; Marie Semple; Alex Uwillingiyimana; Yuke Wang; Emily Wright; Laura Wright; Hao Wu
• Keywords: Air travel; Pandemic; Disease Transmission; Airborne Transmission; Airplane

Significance With over 3 billion airline passengers annually, the inflight transmission of infectious diseases is an important global health concern. Over a dozen cases serious infections have been documented, and air travel can serve as conduit for rapid spread newly emerging pandemics. Despite sensational media stories, risks respiratory viruses in airplane cabin are unknown. Movements crew may facilitate disease transmission. On 10 transcontinental US flights, we chronicled behaviors movements individuals economy on single-aisle aircraft. We simulated during flight based these data. This data-driven, dynamic network model droplet-mediated unique.