The pandemic of the emerging coronavirus has brought back an ancient dispute among medical experts about the way diseases are transmitted ... a dispute dating back nearly a century, since the inception of bacteriology.
The World Health Organization acknowledged in Geneva last week that the emerging coronavirus could spread through tiny airborne droplets, in a move that highlighted the opinions of more than 200 aerosol experts publicly complaining that the United Nations organization did not warn people of this. The danger.
However, WHO continues to insist that more conclusive evidence is required that the Corona virus, which causes respiratory disease as Covid-19, may be transmitted through the air; This would put the virus on an equal footing with measles and tuberculosis, and would require more measures to contain its spread.
"The slow pace of WHO action on this issue, unfortunately, slows down the pace of controlling this epidemic," said Jose Jiménez, a chemist at the University of Colorado who co-signed a public message urging the organization to change its guidance.
Jiménez and other experts on the transmission of infection by aerosols added that the WHO sticks firmly to the idea that germs are spread mainly through contact with an infected person or something contaminated.
This idea is one of the pillars of modern medicine, and it explicitly rejects the theory of the transmission of diseases through the rotten air, which arose in the Middle Ages, and assumes that the smelly, foul-smelling fumes that form a moldy substance cause diseases such as cholera and plague.
"This is part of the culture of medicine in the early 20th century," said Dr. Donald Milton, an air particle transport expert at the University of Maryland and one of the lead authors of the thesis. "Acceptance that something airborne requires a high level of proof."
The signatories to the message stated that this evidence could include conducting studies on laboratory animals that contract the disease due to exposure to the virus in the air, or studies showing viable virus particles in air samples, a level of evidence not required for other transmission patterns such as contact with contaminated surfaces.
For the World Health Organization, this guide is necessary because it advises countries on their various incomes and resources to take tougher measures in the face of the pandemic that has killed more than 550,000 people worldwide with more than 12 million confirmed infections.
The latest WHO guidance document, released on Thursday, called for more research on the transmission of the airborne coronavirus, which it said had "not been proven".
For his part, Dr. John Conley, an infectious disease expert at the University of Calgary, who is part of the WHO expert group advising on guidance on corona virus, said studies have not yet shown viable viral particles floating in the air. "I want to see evidence of this gentle mist," he added.
Conley and others asserted that if the virus were really transmitted through the air like measles, the number of infections would have been much greater.
Dr Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson, rejected the criticism that the organization was opposed to the idea of the virus being transmitted through aerosols, saying that the organization had recognized the possibility of it being airlifted during medical procedures early in the pandemic.
She added that "it is quite possible" that aerosols may be a factor in some widespread events such as those in which an infected person transports many to crowded places. Many of these events have occurred in places such as nightclubs where people are crowded without likely being careful about protecting themselves or others from infection.
"Most of the outbreaks occurred in poorly ventilated, closed spaces and during a congestion in which it was difficult to take into account social distancing," said Harris.
She stated that the organization called for this reason to urgent studies to know "what really happened in these gatherings and what are the main factors."