Cholera "Bomb"

Can aircraft spread disease?

In recent years European public health officials have been puzzled by a number of cholera outbreaks in areas where the disease is usually unheard of. Several such cases occurred in Czechoslovakia, Portugal and northern France; one even involved a woman, 65, who had never left her village and could not have had contact with any cholera carriers. Now a British researcher offers a novel explanation for these mysterious outbreaks. Writing in the British Journal of Hygiene, Dr. Charles Rondle and his colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggest that the cholera came, literally, out of thin air--as contaminated discharges from highflying commercial aircraft.

Rondle's theory grew out of a chance conversation with a pilot friend, who asked if the venting of dirty water from handbasins in aircraft lavatories during flight (a common airline practice) could spread disease-causing bacteria. Intrigued, Rondle decided to investigate. He picked cholera as a potential airborne culprit because public health agencies keep close tabs on the disease. Thus when he traced regular aircraft routes between Calcutta, where cholera is endemic, and Western Europe, he found that the unexplained cholera cases had invariably occurred along or near these pathways.

That suggested a possible link between the disease and planes carrying cholera-infected passengers. But a key question remained: If the cholera bacterium Vibrio cholerae were dumped from altitudes of 30,000 ft., where temperatures are below freezing, could it survive the journey to earth? Rondle and his colleagues simulated such air drops in their lab, subjecting V. cholerae to rapid freezing in droplets of water, followed by a quick thaw. Result: the durable bugs not only survived but actually flourished. Indeed the tests indicated that even a relatively small quantity of bacteria from, for example, an aircraft washbasin could be lethal. Says Rondle: "When they reach the ground they can get into milk, soup, or dirty water, and all it requires is two mouthfuls of the fluid they have entered for whoever drinks it to be infected with cholera eight hours later."

Rondle concedes that his bacterial "bombs" are still only theoretical, yet he feels that they bear watching. Says he: "If cholera can be spread even only occasionally by effluent from aircraft, then close investigation should be made of the possibility of other bacteria and viruses being spread in a similar way."

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