Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

p Canadian researchers have used computer modeling and international aviation data to predict infectious disease outbreaks by tracking patterns of travel between countries. Any air that’s been recycled through so called HEPA filter will be clear to all intents and purposes of any harmful viruses or bacteria, Evans said. The Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization are studying the research. Anthony Evans, chief of aviation !–more– medicine for the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization. We’re able to look at the air transportation network and … predict very accurately, no matter where a disease shows up in the world, we can say where it’s going to go, said Gardam. Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control at Toronto’s University Health Network. Passengers may worry viruses will spread around planes in recirculated air, but that isn’t a concern thanks to the high efficiency particulate filters that catch microbes, said Dr. Jets transport two billion passengers every year, and can take a disease anywhere on Earth within 48 hours. In the early stages of outbreaks of both SARS and the H1N1 pandemic, people who weren’t showing symptoms carried the viruses to unsuspecting countries. The real risk, whether on a plane or at a theatre, comes from being in close contact with someone who is infected, he said. It’s too late to use travel restrictions on airline passengers to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus, but the findings could help health agencies to get a jump on the next viral threat, said study co-author Dr. Air travel doesn’t pose extra risks for individuals, infectious disease experts say, but it does spread diseases between populations.

br /br /cbc.ca