From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-573679-153444
TORONTO (UPI) -- A researcher in Toronto, who designed a model to
evaluate the world's air traffic patterns, said he accurately
predicted how the H1N1 virus spread worldwide.
Dr. Kamran Khan of St. Michael's Hospital and colleagues analyzed the
flight itineraries of the more than 2.3 million passengers departing
Mexico on commercial flights during the months of March and April to
predict the spread of H1N1.
The findings show the international destinations of air travelers
leaving Mexico were strongly associated with confirmed importations of
the H1N1 virus around the world.
"The relationship between air travel and the spread of H1N1 is
intuitive," Khan said in a statement. "However, for the first time, we
can quickly integrate information about worldwide air traffic patterns
with information about global infectious disease threats. What this
means is that cities and countries around the world can now respond to
news of a threat earlier and more intelligently than ever before."
Known as The BIO.DIASPORA Project, the system was created in response
to the Toronto SARS crisis in 2003 to better understand the global
airline transportation network and its relationship to the spread of
emerging infectious diseases.
The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.