“Dangers are Real”
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Planes as Germ Carriers in the Pacific
From Our Own Correspondent
Honolulu, Aug. 11.
DR. ARTHUR TORRANCE, associate of the Royal Society of Tropical Medi cine, who has been studying the possibili ties of international aeroplanes carrying infectious germs in Africa, India, the Orient and the Pacific, this week stated that the dangers are very real.
“Like man, the yellow fever mosquito no longer must depend on his own power to travel,'’ said Dr Torrance. “An infected mosquito in Africa can easily travel by plane to India where the same type of mosquito exists, uninfected. It only takes a few visits with his cousins from overseas to pass on the yellow fever.
“To combat these obvious dangers there must be a rigid system of fumi gating every plane. Fleas and every type of insect and bug can hop into planes.
They secrete themselves in people’s clothes, in baggage, in the mail, any where, The fumigation, for example, which takes place inside each trans pacific clipper before it lands at every port is not potent enough, and does not penetrate enough, to kill the infections.
It cannot be, because the passengers are exposed to the fumes.
“My attention has been drawn to the new air line which is to be opened shortly between Australia and New Guinea. This is packed with infectious possibilities and the Government, I hope, will strictly supervise all the flying,” he concluded.