| ■ Seasonal Flu Identified Among Airline Passengers | 07.04.02 |
| Seasonal flu is the likely cause of illness among several passengers who were aboard a Continental Airlines flight Monday from Hong Kong to Newark, N.J., the Houston Chronicle reported. The flight crew noticed that a number of passengers appeared ill during the flight and notified U.S. health authorities. The plane was held on the tarmac for two hours after it landed in Newark. After an investigation, health officials cleared the sick passengers to enter the United States. The passengers' symptoms were consistent with seasonal influenza, Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Chronicle. Some of the passengers were already sick when they boarded the aircraft in Hong Kong but more became ill during the flight, Allen said. The ill passengers caused concern because the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak originated in Asia in 2002 and was spread, in part, by airline passengers. Thousands of people were infected by SARS and hundreds died. |