For the past five years, I’ve done an annual round-up for my “At the Airport” column on USAToday.com of airports where passengers can get a flu shot while they’re waiting for their flights. For a while there, the number of airports offering this service was increasing – last year I counted more that two dozen – but this year it won’t be so easy for health-conscious road warriors to get that flu shot on the fly.

After a several-year spike in availability, the trend of offering flu shots at U.S. airports seems to be waning.

While there are several cities where the flu vaccine is available at clinics on airport property or right nearby, as the accompanying chart shows, this year there are less than a dozen U.S. cities where travelers will be able to get immunized against this year’s strain of the flu inside an airport.

“The contracting process may have proved too onerous,” said Kent Vanden Oever, of the AirProjects consulting firm, “Or it may be that the number of flu shot outlets available to people has exploded in the last couple of years. It seems that every grocery store, drug store, etc. offers them now and not as many people require the convenience of getting them at the airport.”

At airports in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Miami and Las Vegas, the on-site clinics operated by AeroClinic and AirportMD that once offered flu shots are no longer open. Harmony Pharmacy, which in past years offered flu shots at health centers at JFK, SFO and Newark-Liberty airports, has shifted focus and now only sells health and beauty products at its airport locations.

And this year FLU*Ease, a company that for the past five years has set up and staffed many in-airport flu shot kiosks, isn’t even offering that service.

“Over the years, I’ve had kiosks at JFK, BOS, ORD, MDW, STL, DEN, LAX, TPA, CVG and SFO,” said FLU*Ease owner Jeff Butler, “We provided in excess of 60,000 shots annually. But last year business was down over 60 percent, with no explainable reason.”

It’s not that getting a flu shot is no longer important for travelers. “When you travel, you’re going to be exposed to many more people and potentially exposed to a wide variety of bugs that could cause infection” says Dr. Robert Wheeler, the medical director of On Call International, which provides medical and travel assistance for travelers, “So travelers do need to be concerned about flu this time of year.”

This year, travelers seeking flu shots at an airport will find them at kiosks inside the Louisville and San Diego airports and at the Carehere Walk-in Clinic and Wellness Store at Nashville International Airport. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the remaining (and original) AeroClinic is offering flu shots at both its atrium site and at several kiosks inside the airport. The clinics inside San Francisco International and Orlando International Airports are also offering flu shots, as are independent clinics located on airport property or right nearby Los Angeles, Boston, JFK and Honolulu airports.

At O’Hare International Airport, which seven years ago was the first airport to offer flu shot kiosks, the UIC O’Hare Urgent Care Center is once again offering flu shots in its clinic and at several temporary kiosks in the terminals. And while it takes ten to fourteen days for protection from a flu vaccine to kick in, clinic medical director John Zautcke says airport flu shot kiosks offer busy travelers the utmost in convenience. “There’s virtually no wait and it takes less than five minutes. We’ve done almost 3,000 flu shots this year already and expect to do another 1,000.”

Last week, Barbara Cohen of Bethesda, Md., and Donna Vobornik of Oak Park, Ill., were among the travelers who stopped to get their flu shots at one of the kiosks at O’Hare International Airport.

Cohen was heading back to Maryland after visiting her son at college in Chicago. “When I’m at the airport, I usually read or walk around,” said Cohen, “I really meant to get a flu shot this weekend and there was the stand. This is perfect. It’s as easy as it can get.”

Vobornik was on her way home from visiting her daughter, who is attending college in Miami. “It’s becoming an annual thing for me to get my flu shot at the airport,” said Vobornik, “This is my third year. I travel a lot for my job as a lawyer and sit next to a lot of sick people on a lot of flights. I’ll feel less worried now knowing that I have my shot.”

Ready for your flu shot? You can see a chart of airports offering flu shots this year at the bottom of my “Get your flu shot at the airport” column on USAToday.com.

Flu season is just around the corner and many airports around the country are, once again, doing their part to keep travelers healthy.

First to begin spreading the word: the San Diego International Airport.
They’re offering influenza, Tdap (to address the pertussis/whooping cough epidemic), Hepatitis A and B and other CDC-recommended vaccinations, for a fee, to ticketed passengers now through November 28 at two post-security locations in Terminal 1 East and West rotundas, Sunday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

I’m gathering details about other airports offering flu shots and other vaccinations this season, so if you see a kiosk set up at your airport, let me know.

But here’s something cheap – free, actually – you can pick at just about any airport that you’d be better off leaving behind: germs.

(MRSA Photo Credit: Janice Haney, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

In working on another topic for next week’s At the Airport column on USATODAY.com, I’ve been e-chatting with a podiatrist who has important advice for anyone heading to the airport wearing flip-flops or sandals: put on socks!

“When the TSA has every single person remove their shoes and stand barefoot in the same place where hundreds of prior people have, you create a scenario where infection has the potential to spread,” warns Dr. Nirenberg. “Persons with fungus, warts or bacterial infections are still told to remove footwear and these could be spread to people who have breaks or fissures in the skin of their feet.”

Ick!

Sure, you want to get through the security line quickly. But when you’re dressing to go to the airport wear put on some socks. If you forget and find yourself standing barefoot on that mat with the white foot outlines on it, your next stop should probably be an airport shop where you can buy yourself an inexpensive pair of souvenir socks.

The news about the outbreak of a “super-toxic” strain of E. coli bacteria in Europe is terrible: at least 18 people killed so far and more than 1,600 sickened.

As I wrote on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, the culprit may be bacteria on cucumbers, lettuce and other salad ingredients, so just to be safe, American and some other airlines have decided to temporarily remove salads from menus on flights departing Europe.

“We are adjusting our menus out of Europe by eliminating leafy salads, lettuce and tomato garnishes and adding either a pasta salad or grapes,” said America Airline spokesperson Tim Smith. “We are replacing the salad menu items with other menu options to pre-empt any risk and alleviate concerns.”

The airline has alerted travelers to this action with a notice on its website, which also states:

“We will closely monitor and take direction from the local health authorities and the World Health Organization and return to the original menu when we believe it is safe to do so.”

Other airlines, and the companies that prepare in-flight meals for airlines, are also making menu changes.

Lufthansa Airlines spokesperson Martin Riecken said after the May 25 warning from the German Robert-Koch institute about eating cucumbers, salads and tomatoes in North Germany, LSG Sky Chefs, the company that prepares in-flight meals for Lufthansa and 300 other airlines, “initiated preventive action to adjust its meal production in Germany.”

The company stopped the use of raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and is providing substitute products for meals on flights out of Germany until mid-June.

Delta Air Lines spokesperson Chris Kelly Singley said the airline is monitoring the situation, but “at this time, Delta is not pulling salads from our flights departing Europe.”

And I’m waiting to hear back again from a representative at Gate Gourmet, which on its website boasts 270-plus customers at 120 airport locations around the globe.

Their written statement to me at the end of the day didn’t say whether or not any of their airline customers had changed their menus in response to the E. coli scare, only that:

“We are monitoring very closely what the European and global regulatory agencies are reporting and working with our customers to quickly implement alternate suppliers, if necessary.”

Every Sunday here at  StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday: a day to unpack our carry-on and take a look at some of the fun, inexpensive goodies you can find for sale at airports.

This week’s souvenirs come from San Francisco International Airport, which is getting to ready to open the new and very much improved Terminal 2 to the flying public.  They will be a grand opening celebration for T2 on April 9th (anyone can go, but you’ll need to sign up for a free ticket). Virgin America and American Airlines begin using the terminal for regular flights on April 14th.

I’ve already posted a sneak preview of the terminal. See SFO T2 sneak peek -Part 1 and SFO T2 sneak peek part 2 - and check back later for more.

When I visited the new T2, the shops were not yet open, so I wandered over to the SFO International Terminal to see what I could find.  Sadly, the Sephora store is gone, but Freshen Up! is still there.

Located right next door to the Airport Travel Agency (on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal, near the entrance to Gates G91-G102) and open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., this no-frills spot offers shower rooms, massage chairs, a place to iron your clothes and a wide variety of travel-sized items at surprisingly reasonable prices. 

In addition to things like toothpaste, diapers, shaving cream and other sundries they also stock underwear, socks, shirts, pantyhose and other items travelers might find useful when they’re stuck at the airport on a long layover or while waiting for that delayed flight.

A 20 minute shower at Freshen Up! will cost you $11. A 30-minute “deluxe” shower is $15 and includes shampoo, lotion, shower shoes a towel and nice soap. Store your bags at the travel agency next door and they’ll give you a coupon good for an upgrade from the standard to the deluxe shower.

Now that you’re clean – go shopping!

And if you see a great airport souvenir that’s inexpensive, ‘of’ the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, I’ll send you a special travel souvenir.

I haven’t stopped breathing on airplanes, but I have started using my hand sanitizer more often. After reading this, I bet you will too.

Every time she boards an airplane, Sheelagh Doyle of New York City worries that the dry, recirculated air onboard will make her sick.

“Most times, when I take a flight over a few hours, I get a cold or chest infection,” she said. “I’ve resorted to hiding under a blanket for long-haul flights trying to avoid it.”

Many travelers who fall ill within a day or two of a recent flight blame the quality of the cabin air. But as it turns out, airplane air is no worse than what you’d encounter in your average office building.

It’s that coughing or sneezing seatmate that you need to worry about.

“Airplane air isn’t as bad as most people envision,” said Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona at Tucson. Gerba, also known as Dr. Germ, studies germs and where they congregate and doesn’t worry much about the air quality on airplanes. “On a trip, it’s more likely that the food you eat and the things you touch will make you sick.”

The air up there
Many passengers mistakenly believe that the air in the cabin that they left the gate with is the air they have to breathe for the rest of the trip. “This is not true,” said Boeing spokesperson Bret Jensen.

He blames low humidity for giving airplane air a bad rap. “The overall relative humidity aboard an aluminum airplane is low — around 6 percent — and people become dehydrated on long flights if they don’t drink water regularly. This can make people feel different than when they boarded the airplane.”

Modern airplanes do recirculate air, “but don’t let that scare you,” said travel health expert Mark Gendreau, the senior staff physician and vice chair of emergency medicine at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass.

“Airplanes take about 50 percent of the air collected in the outtake valves of the passenger compartment and mix it with fresh air from outside that gets heated by the engines. That air is then passed through HEPA filters that sterilize it before it’s reintroduced to the passenger cabin.”

Previously, some health experts were concerned that airlines might not service those HEPA filters as often as they should. But Gendreau says both health and economic concerns help insure that airlines do. “If HEPA filters age, they start collecting material. That creates drag and airplanes start burning more fuel. And these days airlines are not interested in wasting fuel.”

Breathe easy
It may help you breathe easier next time you fly knowing that air flow is minimized between seat rows and that airplane air is refreshed more often than the air in office buildings.

“You are closer to people in the enclosed space of an airplane than you are in an office building,” Gendreau said. “But something called ‘dilution ventilation’ means that even with microorganisms in an air space, if you have good ventilation, there will be less of a chance of transmission.”

The airborne germs on an airplane to be wary of, say both Gendreau and Gerba, are the ones coming from an ill traveler in a row nearby.

“When someone coughs or sneezes, 20 to 30,000 particles fly out about three feet and settle on nearby surfaces. Those microorganisms can live from several minutes up to 24 hours,” said Gendreau. “If you’re more than six feet away from that person, you don’t have much to fear. It won’t propel far enough.”

But if you touch something that a sick passenger’s germs have landed on, you’re at risk.

Watch what you touch
Travel health experts say that instead of worrying about the cabin air, travelers should make an effort to avoid touching objects such as airplane toilet seats, soap dispensers, seatbacks, armrests and especially tray tables that can harbor infectious germs. “There are surfaces that everyone touches and you have no idea if a person has sniffles and then walks down the aisle touching the seats and armrests as they go,” said Gendreau.

“We find a lot of flu and cold germs on airplane tray tables,” said environmental biologist Gerba, who takes test swabs during his frequent travels. “And there’s no protocol or government requirement for airlines to clean those between flights.”

And don’t think that all the germs you encounter when traveling are on an airplane. “Think about all the places you can get exposed to an illness from the time you leave home,” said Gendreau. “You park in a garage, take the escalator and touch the hand rest. You touch the buttons on the ATM. You go through the security checkpoint, you buy coffee, you sit on a seat. Any of these surfaces might be contaminated.”

Get moving
To steer clear of germs on airplanes, Gerba suggests trying to avoid sitting next to someone with a cold and even asking to be moved away from a sneezer if there’s an open seat.

If you can’t change your seat, Gendreau said, try turning the air vent above your seat to medium flow and pointing the air current just slightly in front of your face so that germs from those coughing or sneezing nearby are deflected away from you.

He also urges travelers to stay hydrated. “Our nasal passages, our eyes, and the mucous membranes in lips and mouths have enzymes to fight bacteria,” he said. “If you’re dehydrated, those enzymes won’t work well.” Gendreau suggest drinking at least 8 ounces of water for every two hours.

Mostly, though, keep your hands clean.

“Airlines do minimal cleaning of the airplanes during the day,” said Gendreau. “So when I travel, after I put my stuff in the overhead bin, I’ll take out my hand sanitizer, put some drops on the tray table and clean it with a tissue. I’ll also clean the seat belt and the armrests and goop up my hands. Then I know my seat area is sanitized.”

And then he sits back, relaxes and takes a deep breath.

It’s time to get a flu shot and being on the road all the time isn’t an excuse anymore for avoiding that task.

Especially since, as I wrote in my column on USATODAY.com this week, there are more than 23 airports where you can get a flu shot on the fly.

So on Monday, when he arrived from Chicago and saw that the Harmony Pharmacy store at New York’s JFK airport was offering flu shots, he took off his heavy tweed jacket and rolled up his shirt sleeve. “I’d shopped there before and just thought ‘Now is as good a time as any.’ I didn’t feel weird at all,” said Gibbs, “In fact, getting a flu shot while running through the airport seemed pretty cool.”

First marketed to travelers by the medical clinic at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport seven or eight years ago, in-airport flu shots are being offered this year at clinics and temporary kiosks at close to two dozen airports stretching from Los Angeles to Miami.

“Flu costs Americans an estimated $3 billion or more each year in medical fees and indirect costs such as missed work,” said Jeff Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, in announcing the three vaccination stations now open at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. “Making vaccinations available at the airport ensures that even the busiest travelers can take steps to stay healthy and productive.”

The CDC and Dr. Z agree

The 2010-2011 flu season began in early October and, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the season will probably peak in January or February and possibly stretch into the spring. CDC recommends everyone 6 months or older get vaccinated and, unlike last year, says it’s not necessary to get a separate shot to protect against the seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus. “The 2010-2011 flu vaccine will protect against an influenza A H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the 2009 H1N1 virus that caused so much illness last season.”

At Chicago O’Hare, flu shots have been available at the airport medical clinic since August and at a stand-alone kiosk since Labor Day. “We don’t know what the flu season will be like this year yet,” says Dr. John Zautcke, Medical Director of the UIC-O’Hare Medical Clinic, “But the flu is a nasty disease that kills people who are old and sick and puts people that are young and healthy in bed for 4-6 days.”

Zautcke says that in addition to frequent hand washing, covering your nose and mouth when sneezing and trying to avoid close contact with sick people – which can be hard to do on an airplane – “The best thing travelers can do to avoid the flu is get a flu shot.”

Plenty of vaccines but fewer patients

Starting in November last year, there was a nationwide shortage of the seasonal flu vaccine because pharmaceutical companies switched to making vaccines for the H1N1 virus. This year, the vaccines are combined and there’s no shortage. But Jeff Butler of Flu*Ease, the company operating flu shot kiosks at more than a half-dozen airports, says airport flu shots don’t seem to be selling as robustly as they have in past years. “I don’t know whether it’s the mild weather, last year’s frenzy over H1N1 or the fact that people now have access to flu shots in so many stores and corporate offices,” says Butler.

“We’re finding the same thing,” says Rosemary Kelly, executive vice president of AeroClinic, which is offering flu shots this year at airports in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Baltimore and Minneapolis-St. Paul. “It just doesn’t seem to be as hot of a topic this year as it was last year.”

Not deterred

That isn’t stopping some airports from expanding their flu shot offerings. This year, San Diego International Airport has five vaccination stations in operation throughout the terminals. Four stations are located post-security, but one station is in a baggage claim area to make it easy for meeters and greeters, and passengers picking up checked bags, to get vaccinated while they wait. And at New York’s JFK Airport, Harmony Pharmacy is waiting for the final OK to open a second flu-shot station; this one in the center of JetBlue’s Terminal 5, by the performance stage.

And the fact that the flu isn’t in the news right now didn’t deter Diane Callen from getting her flu shot at the airport. Callen, a customer service agent at the Las Vegas airport, was robbed over the weekend. “Let’s just say I don’t need to worry about my jewelry anymore,” she said on Monday. After visiting the police station to fill out paperwork, Callen stopped at the Airport MD booth at McCarran International Airport before reporting for work. “It’s one of those things I usually don’t do unless it’s convenient and I figured the way things are going for me, I’d better go get that flu shot.”

To see which airports are offering flu shots – at clinics or at temporary kiosks – scroll down to the bottom of the article: Get your flu shot on the fly at an airport near you.

You’ll find a chart listing listing locations, hours and prices for flu shots at 23 airports.

]]> http://stuckattheairport.com/2010/11/11/get-your-flu-shot-at-the-airport/feed/ 0 http://stuckattheairport.com/2010/06/29/at-german-airports-bees-are-the-canaries/ http://stuckattheairport.com/2010/06/29/at-german-airports-bees-are-the-canaries/#comments Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:13:33 +0000 Harriet Baskas http://stuckattheairport.com/?p=10805

(Courtesy Field Museum, via Flickr Creative Commons)

According to a story by Tanya Mohn in the New York Times, Düsseldorf International Airport and seven other airports in Germany are using bees as ‘biodetectives.’  Clues about the air quality around each airport show up in the honey.

“The first batch of this year’s harvested honey from some 200,000 bees was tested in early June…and indicated that toxins were far below official limits…”

That’s good news of course, but here’s my favorite part of the story:

Beekeepers from the local neighborhood club keep the bees. The honey, “Düsseldorf Natural,” is bottled and given away as gifts.

The article describes what sort of substances the honey was tested for (“certain hydrocarbons and heavy metals”) and offers intriguing information about the pros, cons and reliability of biomonitoring – the use of living organisms to test environmental health:

Assessing environmental health using bees as “terrestrial bioindicators“ is a fairly new undertaking, said Jamie Ellis, assistant professor of entomology at the Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory, University of Florida in Gainesville. “We all believe it can be done, but translating the results into real-world solutions or answers may be a little premature.” Still, similar work with insects to gauge water quality has long been successful.

You can read the full article here. And you can be sure I’m busy as one of those airport bees trying to figure out how to get some of that Dusseldorf honey for Souvenir Sunday.

And an aviation quiz on the other!

That led me to visit the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum, of course, where the currently featured airsickness bag is this red number from Virgin Australia.

Unfortunately, I didn’t spend all that much time searching the airsickness bag museum site. But that was because I noticed this poster for sale in the gift shop and spent the rest of the evening trying to clear a spot for it on the living room wall in my house.

Doesn’t Paris sound good right about now?

Then sign up to win a pair of tickets (from Pittsburgh) to Paris – courtesy of Pittsburgh’s WHIRL Magazine, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Delta Air Lines, Entries will be accepted through May 7, 2010. But why wait?

Lufthansa Airlines isn’t giving away tickets to Paris, but if you suggest the winning name of the airline’s new A380 airplane, you’ll win a million miles and can go where you want.

The names I entered? Spot. Pookie. Stripe.

Think you can do better?  Then enter Lufthansa’s contest here.

[And keep in mind: Lufthsansa pilots are planning  a strike from February 22-25, 2010. So if you already have a trip scheduled during those days, be sure to check with the airline on the status of your flight.]

It’s still flu season and there are still lots of airports where you can get a seasonal or H1N1 flu vaccine.

If you’re heading to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) you can get an H1N1 flu shot (or mist ) for free.

For the fourth year in a row the airport is partnering with local health organizations to offer free flu vaccines to passengers.  The vaccines will be available Monday, February 22 through Friday, February 26 – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. – at Sky Harbor’s Terminal 4 on level 3 before the security checkpoints on both the east and west ends

And, when you’re shopping at an airport in the next few weeks, consider dropping some bills into one of the collection boxes  the Hudson Group has placed in each of its airport stores, including Hudson News, Hudson Booksellers, cafes and specialty retail shops.  The company is matching customer donations and will forward all contributions to the American Red Cross for the relief efforts in Haiti.