
18. The Virus Spreads Through Droplets
Understanding the way that a virus spreads is critical in developing methods to contain it. While HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, presented a substantial public health emergency in the 1980s and 1990s, it does not spread nearly as quickly as this one.
HIV spreads through bodily fluids that move from one infected person to another person. This particular one, however, is airborne. It spreads through the water droplets in coughs or sneezes of infected people, even if they are asymptomatic, and can infect dozens of people nearby.