Remember SARS?

It was Spring, 2003, and the SARS epidemic was spreading like wildfire -- in large part, because of air travel. Infected passengers carried the illness from Asia to Canada and five other countries just 24 hours after the initial outbreak. Now, health officials worldwide are eyeing the airlines and together with industry executives, they're doing what they can to keep a feared bird flu epidemic contained.

"We are taking all the appropriate measures to make sure that if it's a pandemic, we're prepared to respond," ATA spokeswoman Katherine Andrus told the Associated Press.

Right now, bird flu is felt mostly in Southeast Asia. Only two US airlines fly there -- United and Northwest. But there are a lot of foreign carriers that fly the same route and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta are worried that the world is primed for a pandemic.

"The best thing we always do in these situations is stay in close touch with CDC and as soon as we hear something, we kick it out," Steve van Beek, executive vice president of the Airports Council International told the AP.

Commercial passenger aircraft, of course, provide an excellent environment for spreading bird flu. Passengers sit close together for hours on end. Air is constantly recirculated. Several different passengers will sit in the same seat with virtually no antiseptic cleaning between flight segments.

But since SARS, flight crews are on the alert for passengers who appear ill and might be contagious. They've been trained to do what the CDC suggests -- separate ill passengers from the rest by giving them breathing masks and notify health officials upon landing.

But technology marches on. AeroClave, an Orlando, FL-based company, now makes aircraft environmental equipment that manipulates conditions to kill viruses like SARS, smallpox and, yes, bird flu.

"When we started this two and a half years ago, people looked at us cross-eyed," AeroClave founder Ronald Brown told the wire service. "SARS was just our two-minute warning. It showed how things can spread rapidly."

The FAA is now going about the process of certifying AeroClave.

FMI: www.aeroclave.com