SARS risk low on planes WASHINGTON (Reuters) =97 Preliminary data show the risk of contracting SARS= =20 on aircraft appears low, a U.S. health expert told lawmakers Thursday, and= =20 he said it appeared that outbreaks of the mysterious and sometimes fatal=20 respiratory disease were subsiding in most countries. Asked at a=20 congressional hearing to weigh the chance of catching SARS on a plane=20 flight, Dr. Martin Cetron, a disease migration expert at the Centers for=20 Disease Control, said it was too early to tell because a full analysis of=20 disease transmission was not completed. "SARS is a newly emerging pathogen= =20 on which data is constantly evolving," Cetron told the House aviation=20 subcommittee. But he said the global initiative to identify any SARS=20 transmission link to airlines had produced some results. "From interim=20 data, the risk appears quite small. Though that risk is not zero," Cetron=20 said. Additionally, he said U.S. health officials still believe the best=20 way to prevent SARS transmission on aircraft is to keep sick people off the= =20 plane. Cetron said a an effort driven by the World Health Organization to=20 do so has been effective. Dr. John Jordan of the Federal Aviation=20 Administration said most countries were providing good SARS screening at=20 airports but questioned efforts in China and Taiwan where the disease has=20 raged this year. Airlines worldwide have been hit hard by SARS, which=20 Cetros said appears to be subsiding in most countries where it has=20 surfaced. Nevertheless, the disease has aggravated a global airline=20 industry slump also blamed on general economic weakness, lingering fallout= =20 from the 2001 hijack attacks in the United States, and the war in Iraq. Northwest Airlines, which has a significant Asia service, reported Thursday= =20 its business in May continued to be harmed by the SARS travel fallout.=20 European and Asia carriers have borne the brunt of this, but chief=20 executives said heading into June the worst appeared to be over. Health=20 experts agree that SARS appears to be spread by close personal contact, and= =20 most cases have involved people who cared for or lived with someone with=20 the disease. The Air Transport Association representing big U.S. airlines=20 cited statistics showing only four instances in which SARS may have been=20 transmitted on a plane in the past three months. "By WHO's own accounting,= =20 only 27 individuals out of hundreds of millions of passengers and crew=20 members who flew during the height of the SARS epidemic may have contracted= =20 SARS from a fellow passenger," said James May, president of the airline=20 lobbying organization. He said 22 of those people were on a single flight=20 from Hong Kong to Beijing. "So it seems plausible that some of those=20 passengers may have been infected before or after the flight," May told=20 lawmakers. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************