This is a study that could help limit the transmission of infectious diseases. Scientists from Inserm, the Sorbonne University and the CSIC-IFISC have modeled the places with the highest risk of contamination in an airport, a place where people stay for a long time and where the distance between individuals cannot always be respected.
Crowds and gatherings, with consequent prolonged contact between individuals, are indeed a crucial factor in virus transmission.
gps data
An international team of researchers took the busiest airport in Europe as a model: Heathrow Airport in London. Between February and August 2017, long before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, GPS data was collected from the mobile phones of 200,000 travelers or employees, which makes it possible to visualize the routes of each one of them at the airport.
They were then mathematically crossed with data on the spread of diseases such as the H1N1 flu or Covid-19. Thus, the areas where the risks of virus spread have been identified.
Restaurants, waiting rooms, shops…
According to the results of this study, it is not the places with the most mixed populations that are most at risk in terms of spreading the virus. On the contrary, it seems that it is more about places where one remains immobile for a quite long period.
“These places are not always the most crowded within the airport, but they imply more sustained contact for longer periods between individuals, which allows the transmission of diseases”, emphasizes Mattia Mazzoli, Inserm researcher and first author of the study.
Therefore, it is not the corridors or the queues of the control areas but the bars, restaurants, shops or waiting rooms before boarding where there is a risk of catching a virus carried by another passenger at an airport. These areas represent only around 2% of Heathrow Airport’s accessible area.
risk reduction
Then, the models allowed us to show that by targeting these areas of greatest risk with spatial immunization measures, that is, by decontaminating them, we observed a 50% reduction in the risk of having a second case of H1N1 flu after a first case. imported at the airport. This reduction is 40% due to Covid-19.
“In the places we have identified with our model, the development of dedicated approaches such as air filtration, systematic surface disinfection or the use of Far-UVC lamps can significantly reduce the risk of spread of pathogens, beyond those first cases arriving at an airport or train station without being detected”, explains Mattia Mazzoli.
generalizable model
If airports are especially scrutinized, more than other crowded places, it is because they constitute a constant flow of entries and exits but, above all, because they can promote the spread of an infectious disease on a global level.
However, as the scientists of this study explain, this mathematical model can be generalized and is applicable to other places of transit or mixture of crowds.
Thus, it would be possible, for each case, to locate the areas of high risk of contamination. Therefore, this model could be particularly useful in the early stages of an epidemic.
Source: BFM TV
