After COVID, WHO defines disease spread 'through air'

FILE PHOTO: A visitor walks past an illuminated coronavirus (COVID-19) model as he visit the "Mini-Worlds on the Way of Illumination" (Mini-Mondes en voie d'illumination) exhibition during the Light Festival preview at the Jardin des Plantes (Botanical garden) in Paris, France, November 12, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.

The Geneva-based U.N. health agency released a technical document on the topic on Thursday. It said it was the first step towards working out how to better prevent this kind of transmission, both for existing diseases like measles and for future pandemic threats.