We have to prepare for the fact that infectious diseases can spread rapidly all over the world by air travel. The European meeting of the Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) was held for the seventh time, this time in Finland. The team has particularly focused on the prevention of infectious diseases but it can also discuss other issues related to health in civil aviation.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom arranged the CAPSCA meeting on 10–12 April 2019 together with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is responsible for overseeing compliance with International Health Regulations and publishes guidelines for infectious diseases. ICAO works in close cooperation with WHO, representing aviation expertise and aviation networks.
The CAPSCA meeting discussed, for example, how international organisations try to intervene at an early phase to ensure that an infectious disease epidemic does not become a pandemic involving several countries. Infectious diseases are rarely the only health problem in a crisis area, which is why a more comprehensive approach is favoured when helping the local operators. Travel restrictions on individual routes are usually not recommended. The world has become so networked that travel restrictions only have a very short-term effect in the prevention of infectious diseases.
Participants of the CAPSCA meeting included people from from 25 countries as well as airlines and airline organisations, such as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) and the Interstate Aviation Committee that operates in the Eastern Europe. The Finnish participants included experts broadly from the health care and aviation sectors.
Further information:
https://www.who.int/ihr/en/ (External link)
https://www.capsca.org/ (External link)
ICAO’s Airport Vector Control Register site (External link)
Johan Skjäl, Chief Adviser, tel. +358 295 346 115, johan.skjal(at)traficom.fi