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Germs Fly Free
The Travel Critic · November 30, 1998

On a trip from Brussels to New York, my younger brother contracted an exotic and potentially fatal virus.

I don't remember the exact nature of his illness, but I recall the reaction from doctors when they diagnosed him: they were flabbergasted. Jeff had caught a rare intestinal ailment of African origin - something not found in Europe, where we lived, or the United States.

We narrowed his point of contact with the disease down to the flight. My brother evidently used the bathroom on the Boeing 747, somehow touched the toilet seat or the sink, and, as 7-year-olds tend to do, later put his fingers in his mouth.

I wish I could dismiss this as an isolated case that happened more than 20 years ago. But it's not. On a flight from Birmingham, England, to Turin, Italy, earlier this year, 72 passengers were infected by a virus that caused vomiting and diarrhea. A year earlier, at least two passengers on a Brussels-to-New York flight contracted a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis on the plane.

Germ expert Charles Gerba at the University of Arizona isn't surprised by these cases. The professor of environmental microbiology recently took random bacterial samples from hard surfaces inside the aircraft cabin. His conclusion: "it's really bad."

"The bathroom door handles, the toilet seats, the sink - it's all contaminated with E. coli bacteria," he reports. "The worst areas are the sinks, but I suspect there are other areas that I didn't test, like the ice cube trays and coffee maker, that are also bad."

But the lavatories are the most troubling area, says Mark Sobsey of the University of North Carolina. He tested the sewage tanks on international flights and came up with several disturbing findings. First, the amount of harmful bacteria and viruses is far greater than anyone previously thought.

"We're not exactly sure how many viruses we found," he says. "We're still counting."

The bugs he's already tagged are pretty nasty. They can cause a wide range of illnesses from neurological and cardiac diseases to rashes, fever and gastrointestinal illness. One even causes fatal encephalitis in infants.

And while that blue liquid you see swirling in the toilet is replaced after every flight, it doesn't always kill the germs, according to the scientist.

"Some of the formulations are virucidal," he says. "Others aren't."

In other words, the diseases imported from overseas on one aircraft could linger and multiply. If the plane is used on a domestic flight, there's a chance you might catch a foreign illness without ever leaving the country.

Should travelers worry? Eric Mintz, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, says yes - but it's a qualified yes. On a flight, he notes, passengers are grouped closely together, allowing germs to spread quickly. But even so, there have only been a handful of serious outbreaks in the United States during the last decade. Which suggests that airlines are taking adequate safety measures and that with the right precautions, air travelers can avoid contamination.

So there's no reason for frequent fliers to start behaving like Howard Hughes - avoiding any kind of human contact for fear of germs - just yet.

The experts I spoke with essentially told me the same thing my mother did when I was growing up: remember to wash your hands. Keep in mind, also, that tap water on a plane isn't always safe. Water tanks are filled at the point of origin, where water safety standards aren't necessarily the same as at your destination. Better drink bottled water, just to be on the safe side.

And don't rely on the water to disinfect your hands: a couple of moist towelettes or alcohol gel works far better.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.