Malaria, the word, is actually derived from old Italian from mala aria, literally “bad air,” from mala “bad” (feminine. of malo, from Latin malus) + aria “air” The disease, now known to be mosquito-borne, once was thought to be caused by foul air in marshy districts ..read more

We don’t want another BA card!! We want something similar to what the US have where we can transfer points to any airline like Amex gold/platinum ..read more

magyar wrote: Out of interest, I understand Silver also gets a blocked seat, but it’s just that obviously this all depends on how full the flight is and only on a very empty flight will they end up actually getting one. I’m silver and both ways on a return trip to Istanbul recently I noticed a few days beforehand on Expertflyer that the seat next to me was blocked in an almost full cabin, so it does happen with a bit of luck ..read more

On our grand tour of Asia towards the end of last year there was a lot Dengue fever around, especially in Vietnam. We met lots of travellers thought they had a bad dose of Covid but when they eventually sought medical help had Dengue fever confirmed. Fortunately I’m blood group A and the mosquitoes seem to like OH and kids who are all Group O ..read more

Really poor show. Status is irrelevant if travelling on a CE ticket – CE lounge access is meant to be guaranteed at Gatwick Airport. Let’s post it all over Twitter and see what BA will come up with ..read more

NorthernLass wrote: Same way as malaria and other diseases get (back) in. Infected mosquitoes get into planes (hence the spraying), and bite people, or non-infected mosquito gets onto plane and then bites an infected person. Fascinating fact – the malaria parasite can only reproduce in the stomach of a certain strain of female mosquito, so it gives an infected person a fever, making them an easier target for the mosquito to spot and bite, and suck in the parasite with the human blood. Then when it’s done reproducing the mosquito bites someone else and the parasite gets into a new bloodstream ..read more

The first time I flew CE I was told at check-in that I didn’t have lounge access when I asked which lounge I could use. I didn’t know any better back then ..read more

Another blood group-O mozzie magnet here. To add to the Head for Epidemiology thread, malaria also used to be endemic to the UK and we still have 5 species of the Anopheles genus of mosquitoes which transmits the disease. Luckily, at present, we don’t have a pool of infected people for them to bite. Dengue is spread by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus which bites during the day (Anopheles females tend to take their blood meal in the evening). A good reason to take anti-mosquito measures seriously at all times in an at-risk area ..read more

can2 wrote: Dengue fever in Italy? Why, how? They have had dengue fever and chikungunya in France and Italy for some years. Dengue is quite bad in South America at present, although easing off as they move into winter ..read more

You don’t really want mosquitoes going in either direction because there’s still a risk that they could bite an infected person and spread disease. The death rate from malaria and similar diseases in developing countries is horrific (something like one child dying every 2 minutes from malaria) – as well as supporting eradication in these countries, it’s really important we keep them out of Europe as much as possible ..read more