airborne spread
Floating path
Airborne spread is disease transmission through tiny particles or droplets suspended in the air.
Unlike transmission requiring direct contact, airborne pathogens can travel distances and linger: COVID-19's airborne spread made indoor gatherings risky.
The term became widely familiar during the pandemic, appearing in discussions of ventilation, masking, and social distancing.
- dropletsMinute liquid globules
- respiratory dropletsMicroscopic exhaled liquid particles
- aerosolMist in gas
- ventilation systemApparatus for air exchange
- transmissionSending of information
- contagioncontagion, outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, spreading
- epidemiologyepidemic, epidemiology, pandemic, outbreak, endemic
- Virologyviral replication, viral shedding, bacteriophage, tropism, DNA virus
- pathogenicityvirulence, infectivity, transmissibility, pathogenicity, lethality
containment status
airborne spreadcontainment
Preventing hostile expansion
isolation · quarantine · localized infection · quarantined · non-communicable