The largest flight attendant union in the United States wants airlines to start screening passengers for Hantavirus symptoms, with new pre-flight emails and gate announcements informing passengers to self-report contact with rodents or symptomatic people within the past 45 days.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), which represents crew members at the likes of United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Frontier, and a slew of regional airlines, made the demand following the “concerning” contact that a Hantavirus patient who later died had with a flight attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
The KLM crew member in question was hospitalized in Amsterdam on May 6 with Hantavirus-like symptoms after she had been in close contact with the second victim of the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak when she tried to fly from Johannesburg to Amsterdam while suffering gastrointestinal symptoms.
The woman looked so poorly that the crew members had her removed from the plane. She was rushed to a hospital in Johannesburg the following day and died within hours of being admitted to the Emergency Department.
Thankfully, the flight attendant, along with two other passengers on the flight that had been seated close to the woman, tested negative for Hantavirus after PCR tests were rushed through the lab.
The woman, and several other people on the cruise ship, including two other passengers who tragically succumbed to the illness, were infected with the Andes strain of Hantavirus – the only known strain that is known to be transmissible from human-to-human.
Several passengers from the cruise ship have already flown home to their respective countries, while the remainder of the passengers are expected to be repatriated to their home countries after the ship docks in Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Saturday.
The World Health Organization insists that the risk to the global population is low. A WHO expert has been on the ship for several days, and none of the passengers and crew who are still on the ship are showing any symptoms.
Nonetheless, the AFA remains concerned and wants airlines to take additional measures.
“Prior to travel, airlines should notify passengers that if they have had contact with either rodents or symptomatic people within the past 45 days, they must not fly but can rebook their travel for a later date without penalty,” the union said in a statement.
“Ticket/gate agents should ask all passengers the same questions upon check-in and make an announcement in the boarding area. If a passenger answers in the affirmative, then they should not be boarded to reduce the risk of disease spread onboard.”
The statement added: “Wearing a surgical or N-95 mask will mitigate the risk of inhalation exposure. Airlines should make masks available to flight attendants and to any passenger who becomes symptomatic during a flight.”
While rare, the union also urged flights to report any sightings of rodents and rodent droppings. Such reports are taken very seriously as a rodent could chew through crucial electrical wiring.
There are currently around 150 people on the ship from 23 countries. It’s understood that they will be allowed to board commercial passenger flights to return to their respective countries.
WHO contact tracers will, however, be checking in with them at regular intervals to monitor their symptoms.
Along with the KLM flight, the woman infected with Hantavirus also flew on a four-hour service from the remote British Overseas Territory of St Helena. The passengers on this flight have been contacted. None of these passengers has reported any symptoms.
All of the current confirmed cases in this outbreak are linked to people who were on board the ship. However, a Swiss passenger flew from St Helena to Johannesburg on April 27, then onto Doha, Qatar, and finally Zurich. He started to show symptoms on May 1, and he remains in isolation with confirmed Hantavirus in Switzerland.
As the man was not showing symptoms until after he finished his flights, the risk to other passengers and crew remains low.
Confirmed cases linked to flights:
- Airlink flight 4Z-132 from St Helena to Johannesburg on April 25
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight KL-592 from Johannesburg to Amsterdam on April 25
- A Qatar Airways flight that departed from Johannesburg to Doha and an onward flight from Doha to Zurich around April 27.
