Airbone threat

HUMANITY is facing the threat of dangerous viral diseases from a hitherto
unsuspected quarter - sewage tanks
of aircrafts. According to a survey
sponsored by the World Health
Organisation and the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, out of 40 samples of sewage
tested from international flights at two
sponsored airports, 19 contained infectious viruses that had survived exposure
to disinfectant chemicals in the aircrafts'
sewage tanks. Researchers were particularly looking for enteroviruses (which
usually occur in the gastrointestinal
tract) such as the polio virus. Though
they found that the samples were free
from live polio virus, there were other
enteroviruses that cause symptoms like
diarrhoea, fever and nausea. Researchers
suspect that other dangerous viruses that
can be transmitted by sewage such as
hepatitis A and E, may also escape disinfecting solutions. "The range of illnesses
that can be transmitted by the world's
,oixboes is quite worrisome," says Mark
Sabwv. an environmental scientist at the
University of North Carolina.

HUMANITY is facing the threat of dangerous viral diseases from a hitherto
unsuspected quarter - sewage tanks
of aircrafts. According to a survey
sponsored by the World Health
Organisation and the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, out of 40 samples of sewage
tested from international flights at two
sponsored airports, 19 contained infectious viruses that had survived exposure
to disinfectant chemicals in the aircrafts'
sewage tanks. Researchers were particularly looking for enteroviruses (which
usually occur in the gastrointestinal
tract) such as the polio virus. Though
they found that the samples were free
from live polio virus, there were other
enteroviruses that cause symptoms like
diarrhoea, fever and nausea. Researchers
suspect that other dangerous viruses that
can be transmitted by sewage such as
hepatitis A and E, may also escape disinfecting solutions. "The range of illnesses
that can be transmitted by the world's
,airlines is quite worrisome," says Mark
Sobesy, an environmental scientist at the
University of North Carolina.