The World Health Organization (WHO) for the first time has reached a consensus on the definition of airborne disease transmission.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, this unified understanding aims to prevent the confusion experienced during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which some scientists believe led to loss of life.
Released by the Geneva-based U.N. health agency, a technical document on the topic was made public on Thursday. It marks the first step towards devising strategies to effectively prevent such transmission, encompassing existing diseases like measles and potential pandemic threats in the future.
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The document concludes that the term “through the air” can appropriately describe infectious diseases wherein the primary transmission mode involves pathogens traveling through or being suspended in the air. This aligns with established terminology like “waterborne” diseases, which are widely comprehended across various disciplines and by the general public. Nearly 500 experts, spanning disciplines such as physics, public health, and engineering, contributed to crafting the definition. Among them were individuals who had previously held stark disagreements on the subject.
Historically, agencies have demanded substantial evidence before classifying diseases as airborne, prompting the implementation of stringent containment measures. However, the new definition emphasizes the importance of considering not only the level of proof but also factors such as the risk of exposure and the severity of the disease.
Previous disputes often revolved around categorizing infectious particles as either “droplets” or “aerosols,” based on their size. However, the new definition departs from this distinction. In the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, approximately 200 aerosol scientists voiced public concerns that the WHO had not adequately alerted the public to the potential airborne transmission of the virus. They argued that this oversight resulted in an overemphasis on measures such as handwashing for virus prevention, neglecting the importance of ventilation.
By July 2020, the WHO acknowledged “emerging evidence” of airborne transmission, yet its then chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, who initiated the process to establish a definition, later admitted that the organization should have taken a more assertive stance “much earlier.” Jeremy Farrar, who succeeded Swaminathan, emphasized that the new definition encompassed more than just COVID-19. He acknowledged that at the outset of the pandemic, there was a dearth of evidence, and experts, including those at the WHO, operated in “good faith.” Farrar, who at the time served as head of the Wellcome Trust charity and advised the British government on the pandemic, highlighted that achieving consensus among experts from diverse fields would pave the way for discussions on crucial matters like ventilation in various settings, ranging from hospitals to schools.
He drew a parallel to the realization regarding the transmission of blood-borne viruses such as HIV or hepatitis B by healthcare workers not wearing gloves during procedures. Farrar remarked, “When I started out, medical students, nurses, doctors, none of us wore gloves to take blood. Now it is unthinkable that you wouldn’t wear gloves. But that came because everyone agreed on what the issue was, they agreed on the terminology… [The change in practice] came later.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
