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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWHO considers 'airborne precautions' for medical staff after study shows COVID-19 can survive in air
The World Health Organization is considering airborne precautions for medical staff after a new study showed the coronavirus can survive in the air in some settings.
As you know this is a virus thats transmitted through droplets, so these are little pieces of liquid, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHOs emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, told reporters during a virtual press conference on Monday. When you do an aerosol-generating procedure like in a medical care facility, you have the possibility to what we call aerosolize these particles, which means they can stay in the air a little bit longer.
She added: its very important that healthcare workers take additional precautions when theyre working on patients and doing those procedures.
World health officials say the respiratory disease spreads through human-to-human contact, droplets carried through sneezing and coughing and germs left on inanimate objects.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/16/who-considers-airborne-precautions-for-medical-staff-after-study-shows-coronavirus-can-survive-in-air.html
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)one who is infected and showing no symptoms merely exhales. Neither does my doctor.
hlthe2b
(102,358 posts)or sneezing would not be expelling these droplets withforce, but that doesn't mean zero risk upon close contact.
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Water droplets from your breath condensate on the colder mirror.
You are not coughing but moist droplets are coming out as you exhale.
Those droplets can contain virion containing the virus according to my doctor.
So you're walking behind an infected person without symptoms in a store. They exhale. You coming along behind them, inhale. Because their breath is warm, it helps reduce the drop of the heavier moist air. If you inhale their droplets, in theory, you are getting some of their virions ...
There is an article I read recently that claims people with the virus but without symptoms appear to be more infectious than people who are infected with symptoms. If they have no symptoms, they're not coughing or sneezing. A number of anecdotes of infection suggest that touching is not the only way this virus is getting transmitted.
It may be that they're not saying much about it because the run of masks would prevent medical people from getting them.
hlthe2b
(102,358 posts)Whether the asymptomatic are carrying lower infectious doses remains controversial, but it seems that they very much are sufficiently infectious.
SWBTATTReg
(22,166 posts)likely that the pathogens can remain in the air longer?