news briefs

Researchers to Study the Effects of H1N1 on International Travel

T

he Public Agency of Canada recently shelled out $176,000 US to a Toronto-based research team to study whether or not warnings against traveling to Mexico during the height of the H1N1 flu pandemic influenced international air traffic patterns, reports thestar.com. The agency specifically wants to know if the warnings of Canadian and international public health officials had any impact on commercial air travel during the outbreak. Their goal is to determine whether or not travel warnings really do any good. The World Health Organization has grown increasingly hesistant to issue travel warnings because of their detrimental effect on international trade and tourism. Agency officials say the study could also help the Canadian government decide if it should improve quarantine measures or change the way it screens airplane passengers. Researchers say they expect to find that travel advisories have little effect. Anecdotal evidence suggests economic factors are the driving force behind commercial air travel patterns. Evidence also suggests that warnings issued by public health officials actually made things worse, causing a mass exodus of 2.4 million people from Mexico and thereby exponentially spreading H1N1.

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