Pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan, China: potential for international spread via commercial air travel

Isaac I Bogoch; Alexander Watts; Andrea Thomas-Bachli; Carmen Huber; Moritz U G Kraemer; Kamran Khan

doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa008

Pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan, China: potential for international spread via commercial air travel

J Travel Med. 2020 Mar 13;27(2):taaa008. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taaa008.

Authors

Isaac I Bogoch^{1

2}, Alexander Watts^{3

4}, Andrea Thomas-Bachli^{3

4}, Carmen Huber^{3

4}, Moritz U G Kraemer^{5

6}, Kamran Khan^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
² Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
³ Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
⁴ BlueDot, Toronto, Canada.
⁵ Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁶ Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

Abstract

There is currently an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan, China. Although there are still several unanswered questions about this infection, we evaluate the potential for international dissemination of this disease via commercial air travel should the outbreak continue.

Keywords: SARS; air travel; coronavirus; outbreak; pneumonia; zoonosis.

MeSH terms

Air Travel*
Animals
Betacoronavirus / genetics
Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification*
COVID-19
China / epidemiology
Contact Tracing
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections / transmission*
Coronavirus Infections / virology
Humans
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology
Pneumonia, Viral / transmission*
Pneumonia, Viral / virology
Public Health
SARS-CoV-2
Zoonoses