The pandemic highlighted the risk that air travel carries for the spread of infectious diseases, and that risk remains even though the health emergency has passed. “Airplanes have many touch points that are perfect for the transfer of bacteria or viruses,” said Dr. Mike Ren, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “You don’t want to get sick while on vacation and prevent your chance for relaxation or come back with a cold or something worse.” The risk of catching a cold or flu starts even before a person boards their flight, Ren said. Ride-sharing services transport hundreds of strangers each day, and thousands pass through airports on their way to and from their terminal. But a few common practices can help protect you from catching something, Ren said: Use sanitizing wipes to clean the most-touched places on a plane — seats, tray tables, seat back pockets, arm rests, flight attendant call buttons, air vents and lavatory door handles Apply hand sanitizer or wash your hands regularly, particularly prior to eating a snack or after touching check-in kiosks, handling boarding passes or using the airplane or airport bathroom Keep boarding passes and other documents on your smartphone, to reduce the number of times you touch surfaces in the airport and on the plane Wear a mask through…  read on >  read on >

Booze could threaten a sleeping air passenger’s heart health, particularly on long-haul flights, a new study warns. Alcohol combined with cabin pressure at cruising altitude lowers the amount of oxygen in the blood and raises the heart rate for a long period, even in the young and healthy, researchers explained. And the more alcohol a person drinks, the greater these effects might be – especially among older passengers or those with chronic health problems, results show. Blood oxygen levels can decline to around 90% in healthy passengers at cruising altitude, researchers said in background notes. Anything lower than that is considered hypobaric hypoxia, or low blood oxygen levels at high altitude. Alcohol relaxes blood vessel walls and increases heart rate during sleep, causing an effect similar to hypobaric hypoxia, researchers said. That made them suspect the combination could do harm to sleeping air passengers. For their experiment, researchers recruited 48 people ages 18 to 40. They assigned half to a sleep lab under normal air pressure and half to an altitude chamber that mimicked cabin pressure at cruising altitude. Among those, half were asked to drink an amount of vodka that roughly equaled two cans of beer or two glasses of wine. The combination of alcohol and cabin pressure caused a fall in blood oxygen levels to just over 85%, and a compensatory increase in…  read on >  read on >

Experts are expecting this Memorial Day weekend to be the busiest yet, with nearly 44 million Americans projected to travel between Thursday and Monday. A fair number of those travelers will have a companion suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia-related illness, according to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA). “Taking a trip during Memorial Day Weekend can be a fun way to kick off the summer season for someone affected by dementia if caregivers make the proper preparations and adaptations,” said Jennifer Reeder, the AFA’s director of educational and social services. “Whether traveling by car or mass transit, there are a few steps caregivers can follow to make traveling more comfortable, less stressful and more enjoyable for their loved ones and themselves,” Reeder added in an AFA news release. Some of these steps include: Making sure travel is advisable at all. People early in dementia might still enjoy traveling, but those in the later stages might find it an overwhelming experience. Check with their doctor to make sure they are okay to travel the distance you’ve planned for your trip. Plan around the person’s abilities and routine. Small or unfamiliar changes can sometimes be too much for a person with dementia. Choose a mode of travel and a schedule that causes the least amount of anxiety and stress by taking into account the person’s…  read on >  read on >

Air travel can be miserable for people with disabilities, particularly if an airline mishandles, damages or loses their wheelchair in transit. Now, the Biden Administration has proposed tough new standards for how airlines treat and accommodate people in wheelchairs. The proposed rules would make mishandling wheelchairs an automatic violation of the Air Carrier Access Act, allowing federal regulators to more easily hold airlines accountable when a person’s wheelchair is damaged. The rules would also mandate better training and improved practices to ensure that disabled passengers receive safe, dignified and prompt assistance at airports. “There are millions of Americans with disabilities who do not travel by plane because of inadequate airline practices and inadequate government regulation, but now we are setting out to change that,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an announcement outlining the proposed rule. “This new rule would change the way airlines operate to ensure that travelers using wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity,” Buttigieg added. An estimated 5.5 million Americans use a wheelchair, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said. In 2023, 11,527 wheelchairs and scooters were lost, delayed, damaged or stolen by airlines. Among its provisions, the new rule would require airlines to: Immediately notify passengers of their options if their wheelchair has been mishandled Repair or replace damaged wheelchairs Return a lost wheelchair to the passenger’s final destination…  read on >  read on >

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness aboard a luxury cruise ship that sailed out of San Francisco on Wednesday. More than 150 people on the Queen Victoria, operated by Cunard Cruise Lines, have reported episodes of diarrhea and vomiting since the ship first set sail in early January, the CDC said in its investigation notice. A total of 125 passengers and 25 crew have fallen ill during the course of the voyage. Carrying a total 1,800 passengers and 970 crew members, the ship is next expected to dock in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Monday. The cause of the outbreak remains unclear, the CDC said, but Cunard told the agency that the ship has isolated ill passengers and crew and stepped up cleaning and disinfection efforts. The reported cases are totals for the entire voyage, the CDC noted. “Cunard confirms that a small number of guests had reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness on board Queen Victoria,” Cunard told NBC News. “They immediately activated their enhanced health and safety protocols to ensure the well-being of all guests and crew on board. Measures have been effective,” Cunard added. The ship first left Germany on Jan. 9 and then departed Florida on Jan. 22, according to ship tracker Cruise Mapper, the Associated Press reported. The cruise ends in Australia next month.…  read on >  read on >