It is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to an illness that affects a large area or population. Example sentence: The coronavirus pandemic has caused a widespread illness across the world.
Vaccines are potentially the most powerful tool for preventing widespread illness and death from a virus.
The last year in which it caused widespread illness was 2005-6.
Inadequate removal of uremic solutes contributes to widespread illness in the more than 350,000 Americans maintained on hemodialysis.
He said the spirits, if not appeased, would wreak havoc on the project through construction problems, deaths and widespread illness.
While the law includes provisions for extreme weather or blackouts, for example, there is nothing about widespread illness.
In Kenya, as in many developing economies, waterborne diseases such as cholera cause widespread illness, particularly among children.
Widespread illnesses began occurring again this fall, the agency said.
Treatments can also be tested in smaller groups, at a much lower cost than a large pharmaceutical company spends developing a medicine for more widespread illnesses.
This year, the National Academy of Sciences published an extensive review of years of scientific study of Gulf war illness that concluded a cause and effect relationship existed between the widespread illnesses among veterans and exposure to powerful neurotoxins.
They said such matters would be resolved at the high court trial and that Trafigura's position was "the slops did not and cannot have caused the deaths and widespread illnesses which have been alleged".
In concluding that there was not enough evidence to blame exposure to chemical weapons for the widespread illnesses, the Senate panel nevertheless said the Defense Department and veterans agency had not investigated diligently enough.
