Dozens of passengers ill with fever on flight to New York

[NigelGresley]

Bit worrying! Be interesting to find out what this was, how it spread so quickly, and made so many people ill simultaneously.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-45425412

On sky news:

'His pictures showed people having their temperatures taken with a laser device as they disembarked'

Laser device ...like a thermometer then?

There needs to be more thermal scans at airports to pick up on sick passages before they board in the first place.

Could be a dirty air conditioning filter. If the germs are able to multiply it's easy for a virus to spread. I wonder how many people are actually sick and how many people are showing symptoms because of hysteria?

@ Element

Yes that was what I was thinking Raven.

Aparently it was 10 people all from economy class. People rest of plane and upstairs had no idea what was going on.

So they think its food born as each class eats different things.

People reported feeling sick too.

It was 10 people who were sick. Probably dodgy food the airline say.

I hope it's air conditioner problems making them feel sick and not a corona virus

The airline has said its food.

Glad it’s found to be food, or doesn’t seem possible for 10 people to fall ill with flu at the same time

@AbsentmindedWoman I tried to book my flu jab last week, I'm deemed at risk, and my surgery said that this year there are two different vaccines, one for over-65s and one for under-65s, and they'd received the one for over-65s but there was a manufacturing delay with the other and they hadn't been given a date for when it would be available.
They've called me back this week though and it's now due to be delivered around the 28th so I would expect that's the situation in most areas.

The news reports I’ve seen this morning point the finger at flu, with many passengers having travelled from Mecca.
What is more concerning is that witnesses say that passengers were visibly ill before they boarded the flight. Do airports only ramp up their surveillance when there is obviously an outbreak of something then? I.e. after the horse has bolted.

I mean in this case it’s hopefully regular flu, which is bad enough in itself, but what if it was something more serious? Doesn’t give much confidence in our ability to stop a new virus sweeping the world.

Some of the witness reports I’ve just read are clearly lies (passenger Erin someone:
There were people on the flight with fevers of 100- how on Earth would she know that?)

That said it’s now 10 people out of 500 so doesn’t seem to be an issue at all

The report says some including crew were complaining of gastrointestinal illness. I would take that as a stomach bug or similar. How does that pan out with limited toilets if so many are ill. Surely everyone on the plane would be aware of this if that's the circs. A few people coughing is a completely different scenario.

They might be aware but they wouldn’t be out taking temperatures!