Flying with A Sick Person

What do you do when you find yourself flying with a sick person? It was a full flight, so I couldn’t change my seat. Every part of her body was oozing with her illness and I didn’t know what to do about her for the six hour long flight.

The flight attendant was on to her being sick, because she refused everything but water, which she used to wash down pills every so often. I know I’m going to come down with whatever she had.

–Angeline, Chicago

Flying with a sick person is not fun, but NOT all disease transmission is airborne, so stay positive. If you’ve been getting enough vitamins and minerals through eating healthy foods during the weeks before the flight, you probably won’t get sick.

Aside from being quiet and not disturbing her, it sounds as though she was attempting to get her illness under control with those pills.

People who don’t have strong immunity become accustomed to flying with a face mask that covers their nose and mouth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the N95 face mask that has been up to 90% effective during experiments in filtering out 95% of infectious particles.

Let’s hope that some day long-haul flights will be equipped with face masks for passengers who appear to be ill.