Germs on a plane: aircraft, international travel, and the global spread of disease.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Effect of containment strategies for respiratory diseases on infections imported via international travel to the USA: a modelling study.BMJ open · 2026
   Article
2. Feasibility of AI-driven disease surveillance systems at international airports in sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2026
   Review
3. A comparative approach to confirm antibiotic-resistant microbes in the cryosphere.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023
   Article
4. Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022
   Review
5. Loss of life expectancy due to respiratory infectious diseases: findings from the global burden of disease study in 195 countries and territories 1990-2017.Journal of population research (Canberra, A.C.T.) · 2022
   Article
6. High Sensitivity, Rapid Detection of Virus in High Traffic Environments.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022
   Article
7. Guidelines, law, and governance: disconnects in the global control of airline-associated infectious diseases.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2017
   Review
8. Considerations for Use of Investigational Drugs in Public Health Emergencies.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2017
   Article
9. Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases: Insights, Advances, and Challenges.BioMed research international · 2017
   Review
10. State-of-the-art methods for studying air distributions in commercial airliner cabins.Building and environment · 2012
    Article
11. Of plagues, planes and politics: Controlling the global spread of infectious diseases by air.Political geography · 2009
    Article
12. U.S. airport entry screening in response to pandemic influenza: modeling and analysis.Travel medicine and infectious disease · 2009
    Article
13. Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Early Travel-Associated COVID-19 Cases.Frontiers in public health
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Spectrum of viruses and atypical bacteria in intercontinental air travelers with symptoms of acute respiratory infection.2007

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

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