第2181期:WHO Clarifies What It Means for Disease to Spread Through the Air

International health experts have agreed on a new definition of what it means for a disease to spread “through the air.”国际卫生专家就疾病“通过空气”传播的含义达成了新的定义。

The agreement came after the World Health Organization (WHO) cooperated with hundreds of international health experts to explain or clarify the meaning. The WHO said the technical document it issued was the first step towards finding better methods to prevent airborne disease spread.该协议是在世界卫生组织（WHO）与数百名国际卫生专家合作解释或澄清其含义后达成的。 世界卫生组织表示，其发布的技术文件是寻找更好的方法来防止空气传播疾病传播的第一步。

The document says the term "through the air" can be used for infectious diseases in which the main spread involves a pathogen traveling through the air or being suspended in the air. The experts said this is similar to the official description of "waterborne" diseases.该文件称，“通过空气”一词可用于主要传播涉及病原体通过空气传播或悬浮在空气中的传染病。 专家表示，这与官方对“水传播”疾病的描述类似。

The WHO’s new explanation is an effort to avoid public misunderstandings about how some diseases can be passed through the air or are “airborne.”世界卫生组织的新解释是为了避免公众对某些疾病如何通过空气传播或“空气传播”产生误解。

Such misunderstandings happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO was criticized by many scientists during the early days of COVID-19 in 2020. They accused the U.N. health agency of failing to warn the public early on that the virus could spread through the air.此类误解在 COVID-19 大流行期间发生过。 2020 年 COVID-19 爆发初期，世界卫生组织受到许多科学家的批评。他们指责联合国卫生机构未能及早警告公众该病毒可能通过空气传播。

The scientists said this led to too much public guidance centered on handwashing and similar measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They said this guidance ignored other measures, such as looking at the spread of viruses through ventilation systems.科学家们表示，这导致了太多以洗手和类似措施为中心的公共指导，以防止 COVID-19 的传播。 他们表示，该指南忽略了其他措施，例如观察病毒通过通风系统的传播。

By July 2020, the agency said there was "evidence emerging" of airborne spread. Soumya Swaminathan was WHO chief scientist during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Swaminathan began a process to agree on a new definition for airborne disease spread. She later said she thinks the agency should have been more forceful in that message "much earlier."该机构表示，到 2020 年 7 月，“有证据表明”空气传播。 Soumya Swaminathan 在新冠肺炎 (COVID-19) 大流行初期担任世卫组织首席科学家。 斯瓦米纳坦开始就空气传播疾病传播的新定义达成一致。 她后来说，她认为该机构应该“更早”更强有力地传达这一信息。

Swaminathan’s successor, Jeremy Farrar, recently told Reuters news agency the new definition was about more than COVID-19. He added that at the beginning of the pandemic there was a lack of available evidence. He said experts including the WHO had acted in "good faith." At the time, he headed the Wellcome Trust charity and advised the British government on COVID-19.斯瓦米纳坦的继任者杰里米·法勒 (Jeremy Farrar) 最近告诉路透社，新定义不仅仅涉及 COVID-19。 他补充说，在大流行开始时，缺乏可用的证据。 他说，包括世界卫生组织在内的专家都是本着“善意”行事的。 当时，他是 Wellcome Trust 慈善机构的负责人，并就 COVID-19 向英国政府提供建议。

Farrar said the new definition would permit discussions to begin about issues such as ventilation in different kinds of buildings including hospitals and schools. He compared the issue to the realization that blood-borne viruses, like HIV or hepatitis B, could be spread by medics not wearing gloves.法勒表示，新的定义将允许开始讨论医院和学校等不同类型建筑的通风等问题。 他将这个问题与认识到艾滋病毒或乙型肝炎等血源性病毒可能由不戴手套的医务人员传播的认识进行了比较。

"When I started out, medical students, nurses, doctors, none of us wore gloves to take blood," Farrar said. "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," he added.“当我刚开始时，医学生、护士、医生，我们都没有戴手套来采血，”法勒说。 “现在，你不戴手套是不可想象的。但这是因为每个人都同意问题是什么，他们就术语达成一致……[实际上，变化]是后来发生的，”他补充道。