By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com
May 3, 2006
With one eye on a possible pandemic and the other on civil liberties, airlines and government officials are at odds over pending quarantine rules.
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insists that detaining sick passengers, rather than allowing them to board ships and planes, can help prevent a bird flu pandemic. But civil libertarians disagree, saying their ideas are for the birds.
Under the proposed regulations, airline and cruise line employees would have to collect personal health data, report sick passengers, and inform the CDC within 12 hours. All information would remain in CDC computer banks for at least 60 days.
The passenger quarantine wwould involve three steps:
• People could be detained three days without proof they were sick;
• Airlines would store individual information, including names of traveling companions; and
• Other passengers would be notified of potential exposure.
Keeping personal information private, not to mention using non-medical personnel to pick out sick passengers, poses major problems, according to Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He also said the CDC's plan would give the government "a free pass" to detain people.
Foreigners traveling to the United States could also be reluctant to give the U.S. government personal information.
Funding the program, to the tune of $100 million a year, poses another obstacle.
On the other hand, preventing the spread of the deadly virus is essential in a world connected by high-speed travel.
According to Georgina Graham, global security chief at the International Air Transport Association, "It's not in our interests to have an outbreak. But the burden shouldn't be on our industry."
The avian flu was discovered in Asia, where it has killed a small number of people -- all of whom had close contact with infected fowl. Human-to-human transmission is possible only if the virus mutates.
Symptoms range from fever, cough, sore throat, and body aches to pneumonia and other respiratory problems, the CDC said.
