(Geneva = Yonhap News) Correspondent Ahn Hee = The World Health Organization (WHO) has clarified the confusion surrounding the principle of transmission of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, according to which viruses spread through the air, and has unified the terminology.
The WHO stated in a briefing on the 18th (local time) that “all pathogenic particles transmitted through the air, such as COVID-19, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), the new influenza and MERS (severe acute respiratory syndrome of the Middle East), are classified as “infectious respiratory particles”.
IRP also applies to other respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis and measles.
The reason pathogens that transmit respiratory infectious diseases have been unified under the term IRP is because for a time after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 there was confusion about the principles of infectious disease transmission.
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts argued that the virus was spread through droplets emitted by patients when they sneezed.
This gave rise to the idea that the virus is transmitted when droplets above a certain size protrude and settle, attach to a specific surface and come into contact with other people. Guidance that handwashing takes priority over wearing a mask is believed to be the result of an overinterpretation of this view.
However, as research cases accumulated, experts concluded that there were many more cases in which fine droplets that did not sink easily were released through the patient’s airway and then floated through the air, transmitting the disease.
WHO believes confusion has grown as the health and medical community uses different terminology regarding the types of particles that transmit disease, such as “droplets” and “aerosols.”
There is no difference in whether one patient’s pathogens are released into the air and transferred to others, but because the terminology is different, there is a difference in how people understand and prevent disease.
“Broad agreement on the new term IRP will not only make collaboration between disciplines easier, but will also avoid incorrect distinctions between diseases,” said WHO Chief Scientist Jeremy Farrar.
WHO unified the terminology of pathogens in the IRP, but announced that it still divides the types of transmission of infection through the air into two types.
WHO introduced that one is that the IRP is released into the air and other people inhale it, and the other is that the IRP is released into the air and deposited directly into the mouth, nose or eyes of others close people.
The WHO said: “It took more than two years to bring together experts and stakeholders to agree on the terminology” and added: “We hope that this agreement will lead to a better understanding of airborne diseases.”
Prayerahn@yna.co.kr
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