Eighteen airline passengers in Australia have died since 1992 from blood clots, an Australian newspaper said Monday quoting coroner reports. Most of the deaths were after long haul flights to Australia, but one was after a two hour flight. It says some cases date back to the late 1980s but about half occurred in the past two years. It has signed up hundreds of potential clients keen to sue 20 international airlines. Airlines have rejected any link between cramped air travel and DVT, but have begun giving passenger advice in in-flight videos and magazines and on their Web sites.
Airlines advise that mild exercise can help prevent blood clots.
The World Health Organization will hold a meeting on the issue next month. There are about 20,000 cases of DVT in Australia each year, but doctors said only three to seven percent of those admitted to hospital had been travel related. For those with multiple risk factors it was one in 100,000. We are all worried whether our sister, brother, mother, father or children traveling on long haul flights, which happen commonly in Australia, will be struck down with this disease. Baker said two of the most famous DVT sufferers were U.S. Vice-Presidents Richard Nixon and Dan Quayle.