Is the spread of a pandemic as the result of travel a more likely or
less likely event? Which diseases currently that are active are most
likely candidates?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 05 Oct 2005 18:40 PDT

seigea-ga,

It is a well-established phenomenon that pandemics in human
populations are spread in large measure through travel.  The great flu
pandemic of 1917-18 was considerably exacerbated by the fact that so
many soldiers and displaced refugees were on the move at the end of
WWI.

But your question asks for a comparison of "a more or less likely event".  

Can you clarify what you mean here?  Are you asking if spread or
disease by travel is more or less likely than some other vector, like
spread through contaminated drinking water?

And is there a particular class of disease that you have in mind?  Flu
is not cholera is not plague, and they all spread through different
mechanisms.

Let us know a bit more about what you're after.

Thanks,

pafalafa-ga