A sick person sneezes. Even in a well-ventilated room, airborne droplets containing infectious agents can remain viable for as long as six minutes.
One infectious disease that’s been in the headlines this year is measles, which has made a comeback since being declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. In the first half of 2019 (Jan. 1 to July 11), 1,123 individual cases of measles were confirmed in 28 states across America. Per the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it’s the largest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992.