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Airlines Queasy About Quarantining Bird Flu Victims

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

May 3, 2006

Bird Flu • Scientists Report Progress Toward Bird Flu 'Cure' • Bird Flu Not the Only Animal Disease Threat • Bird Flu Vaccine Trials 'Encouraging' • FDA Frets about Flu Drugs' Side Effects • World Not Ready For Bird Flu • Researchers: Bird Flu Pandemic Inevitable • Bird Flu Scare in Virginia • FDA Issues Flu Vaccine Guidelines • FDA Approves First Bird Flu Vaccine • More Flu Bugs Show Resistance To Anti-Virals • Seasonal Flu Shot Might Offer Some Bird Flu Protection • Experts Concerned about Tamiflu Overuse • Study Finds Much Bird Flu Planning is Misplaced • U.S. Orders More Bird Flu Vaccine • Scientists Identify Genetic Changes That Could Lead to Bird Flu Pandemic • Drug Interaction Can Render Tamiflu Ineffective • New Bird Flu Variant Renews Pandemic Concerns • Researchers Find New Weapon Against Flu Virus • Researchers Test Spreadability of Bird Flu Viruses to Humans • GlaxoSmithKline Claims Bird Flu Breaththrough • Global Corporations Struggle to Plan For Pandemic • Flu Pandemic Is "Inevitable," EU Experts Warn • Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated In Indonesian Cases • Indonesian Nurse May Have Bird Flu • Study Warns of "Chaos" and "Panic" If Bird Flu Strikes • Investigators Find No Evidence Bird Flu Virus Has Mutated • Scientists Fear Bird Flu Virus May Have Mutated • Airlines Queasy About Quarantining Bird Flu Victims • More ...

With one eye on a possible pandemic and the other on civil liberties, airlines and government officials are at odds over pending quarantine rules.

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insists that detaining sick passengers, rather than allowing them to board ships and planes, can help prevent a bird flu pandemic. But civil libertarians disagree, saying their ideas are for the birds.

Under the proposed regulations, airline and cruise line employees would have to collect personal health data, report sick passengers, and inform the CDC within 12 hours. All information would remain in CDC computer banks for at least 60 days.

The passenger quarantine wwould involve three steps:

• People could be detained three days without proof they were sick;

• Airlines would store individual information, including names of traveling companions; and

• Other passengers would be notified of potential exposure.

Keeping personal information private, not to mention using non-medical personnel to pick out sick passengers, poses major problems, according to Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He also said the CDC's plan would give the government "a free pass" to detain people.

Foreigners traveling to the United States could also be reluctant to give the U.S. government personal information.

Funding the program, to the tune of $100 million a year, poses another obstacle.

On the other hand, preventing the spread of the deadly virus is essential in a world connected by high-speed travel.

According to Georgina Graham, global security chief at the International Air Transport Association, "It's not in our interests to have an outbreak. But the burden shouldn't be on our industry."

The avian flu was discovered in Asia, where it has killed a small number of people -- all of whom had close contact with infected fowl. Human-to-human transmission is possible only if the virus mutates.

Symptoms range from fever, cough, sore throat, and body aches to pneumonia and other respiratory problems, the CDC said.

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