Bugs on a Plane
snowboards along when they travel. They also take bacteria and viruses
with them. Pathogens—disease-causing microbes—don’t have wings or
legs, so they can’t travel on their own. Instead, they hitch a ride to their
final destination. Often that ride is with a passenger who is sitting for
hours inside a crowded plane with poor air circulation.
Prolonged close contact during air travel greatly increases the
risk of one person passing a microbe to others. Air travel also often
includes stops and layovers along the way, and each of those layovers
and flight changes increases the time that a person can pick up—
and spread—an infection. It also increases the number of people to
whom a traveler is exposed and to whom that traveler can spread the
infection.
The Beijing Capital International Airport is the world’s second-busiest airport, handling
more than 94 million passengers in 2016. With millions of people traveling through
airports each day, bacteria and viruses can spread easily and quickly around the world.
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