The new guidelines suggest that people should avoid crowds and provide good ventilation in buildings. (File)
The World Health Organization released new guidelines for the transmission of the new coronavirus on Thursday that recognize some reports of airborne transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19, but has not confirmed the spread of the virus through the air.
In its latest guidelines on transmission, the WHO has recognized that some epidemic reports related to overcrowded indoor spaces suggest the possibility of aerosol transmission, such as during choir practice, in restaurants or in courtyards. fitness.
But the WHO said more research was “urgently needed to investigate such cases and assess their importance for the transmission of COVID-19”.
The report follows an open letter from scientists specializing in the spread of airborne diseases – the so-called aerobiologists – who urged the global body to update its guidelines on how respiratory disease spreads. include aerosol transmission.
Based on its review of the evidence, the WHO has stated that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to spread through contact with contaminated surfaces or close contact with infected people who spread the virus through saliva, respiratory secretions or the droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or sings.
The new guidelines, however, suggest that people should avoid crowds and provide good ventilation in buildings, in addition to social distance, and encourage masks when physical distance is not possible.
“This is a step in the right direction, albeit a modest one. It is becoming clear that the pandemic is caused by very widespread events and that the best explanation for many of these events is aerosol transmission” said Jose Jimenez, a chemist at the University of Colorado who signed the letter, which was published Monday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
In a press briefing Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that there was not yet much solid evidence on the aerial transmission of SARS-CoV- 2, but added: “I think it’s a reasonable assumption that this is happening.”
Although incomplete, Fauci said the evidence so far is “the fundamental basis for which we are now so determined to get people – especially people without symptoms – to wear masks. To be able to see if we can mitigate that, “he said.
Only a very small number of diseases are thought to spread via aerosols or tiny floating particles. These include measles and tuberculosis – two highly contagious pathogens that can persist in the air for hours and require extreme precautions to avoid exposure.
Previous WHO guidelines only recognized airborne transmission of the new coronavirus during specific medical procedures. Linsey Marr, aerosol expert at Virginia Tech, who contributed to the WHO letter, said in an email that she was encouraged by the fact that the agency now recognizes that airborne transmission could produce.
But she said the WHO uses an “outdated definition of droplets and aerosols” and that it focuses too much on the size of the droplets and the distance they travel.
WHO defines aerosols as less than 5 microns because only such small particles can float in the air long enough to be inhaled. However, Jimenez and Marr stated that a much wider range of particle sizes has been found to contribute to the infection.
Rather than size, they said the differences between droplets and aerosols should be based on how the infection occurs: If a person inhales the virus and becomes infected, it is an aerosol. If the infection occurs on contact, these are droplets.
Although WHO has focused on airborne transmission over long distances, Marr said that inhaling aerosols “is more of a concern when in close contact and when people are in the same room.”
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
