Abstract
Increases in international air transport are playing a major role in the global dispersion of mosquito- borne diseases, notably malaria and dengue fever. Disinsection of aircraft is the formal name of the process undertaken to control disease vectors that may be inadvertently imported from endemic regions. The goals of not exposing passengers and crews to insecticides, while also eliminating mosquitoes on flights, are potentially incompatible concerns. Understanding this problematic tourism-health link is important as organisations and individuals strive to make global tourism more sustainable. Aircraft disinsection as a means of disease vector control offers multiple opportunities for tourism research. This review offers a broad study agenda involving tourism and social science work which reaches beyond the medical research paradigm that dominates disinsection studies. It can be suggested that the key question is not whether to side with disinsection or not, but under what conditions is it most effective? Such decisions can be assisted through more integrated aviation and tourism policy analysis, crew and passenger health studies, analysis of crew behaviours and interpretation research.
Highlights
The health of communities everywhere is affected by contemporary air travel
This review offers a broad study agenda involving tourism and social science work which reaches beyond the medical research paradigm that dominates disinsection studies
It can be suggested that the key question is not whether to side with disinsection or not, but under what conditions is it most effective? Such decisions can be assisted through more integrated aviation and tourism policy analysis, crew and passenger health studies, analysis of crew behaviours and interpretation research
Summary
Understanding the forces at work in shaping the safe transport of people around the globe and limiting the spread of disease are major issues for the future of travel and tourism but have not always been a part of the research agenda of tourism studies (Page, 2009). The speed and global reach of air travel have together become effective means of increasing the transmission of disease-carrying mosquito vectors and vector-borne diseases across international borders (Gubler 2008). While many vector-borne diseases have been historically confined to distinct geographical areas, increased rates of vector transmission have been linked to the continued expansion of the global air transport network, the effects of climate change, and changes in human movement patterns (WHO, 2003; Lines, 2007). The WHO reports that malaria currently occurs in 97 countries, some of which are visited by more than 125 million international travellers annually (WHO, 2012a). Resistance to insecticides used in aircraft disinsection has been reported in 27 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (WHO, 2005)
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