Aircraft Cabin Air Recirculation and Symptoms of the Common Cold

Abstract
Aircraft cabins may be high-risk environments for transmission of infectious diseases. Space confinement,1 limited ventilation,2,3 prolonged exposure times, and recirculating air,4 all common to air travel, have been demonstrated to be risk factors for transmission of upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) in other settings. Several case reports detail outbreaks of influenza and tuberculosis aboard aircraft,5-9 but it is not known whether air recirculation increased rates of transmission. Air recirculation increases rates of transmission of viruses that cause the common cold in army barracks,4 but this possibility has not been studied in airplanes.

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