Travelling with CF

Question

Dear expert team,

We would like to fly to Israel over Easter. Is the air conditioning in low-budget carriers such as Easyjet dangerous for my 11-year-old daughter?

Many thanks for the answer.

Answer

Hello,

You are asking whether your daughter will be threatened in any way by the air conditioning on the flight to Israel with Easyjet. There are some general comments to be made about air travel. On a plane, many people are sitting in an unusually tight position for a longer period of time and in a confined space. This always constitutes a relative danger of viral infection from a fellow traveller. It therefore is not unusual even for a healthy average citizen to have the sniffles for a few days after travelling by plane.

Air conditioning units in planes contain filters that filter coarse particles out of the air, but not viruses. They are a real danger only if they are not properly serviced and if the filter systems are not changed regularly. In these cases, there would be the danger of a mould infection. There is no danger of a pseudomonas colonization, though. By default, the filter systems in planes should be changed regularly after a certain running time. These standards apply to all plane types and carriers uniformly and one can only hope that they are actually being followed. Since the flight from Germany to Israel "only" takes about three hours, I do not expect any problems for your daughter.

My hospital organized climate treatment programs in Eilat at the Red Sea between 1996 and 2000. We never got the impression that the participating patients were harmed in any way by the flight.

I therefore wish you and your family a good and carefree trip to Israel.

Kind regards
Dr. H.-G. Posselt

17.04.2012