Subscription Center
Jan 26, 2009 07:10 PM | 14
You can cut your risk of contracting the flu or other respiratory viruses by as much as 80 percent by wearing a mask over your nose and mouth, according to a new study.
"This is the first clinical trial to show a positive effect of masks on preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses," says Raina MacIntyre, an epidemiologist and head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and lead author of the study published today in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) .
The U.S. has been stockpiling face masks to distribute to people in the event of a deadly bird flu or other viral outbreak, but MacIntyre says that until now clinical evidence that they're effective has been thin. She says this study shows they could limit the spread, which is crucial given that it could take up to six months for scientists to roll out vaccines and drugs targeting the responsible virus.
During the winters of 2006 and 2007, MacIntyre and her team tested the effectiveness of masks on 286 adults (mosty parents) in 143 households in Australia. They split participants into three groups: one in which participants wore surgical masks (used in hospitals), another in which members wore a mask known as a P2 that's specially designed to filter out water droplets containing viruses, and, finally, one in which subjects did not don cover-ups.
All of the participants were initially healthy but at risk for catching viruses from their children, who had documented cases of respiratory illness. The researchers found that, after a week, the non-mask wearers were four times more likely to catch a variety of viruses, including the common cold and flu, than those who wore them properly (meaning they strapped them on whenever they happened to be in the same room as their sick children). The masks appeared to be equally effective.
The U.S. has already stockpiled 51,794, 600 surgical masks and 105,873,370 N-95 masks (similar to the P2 variety used in the study), according to CDC spokesperson Von Roebuck. He notes that each state has its own supply, which the feds will augment if necessary.
For those of you who are interested, surgical masks (made of paper) can be purchased at most local pharmacies for less than a buck, while N-95's (a paper/fabric combination) are available at pharmacies or online for as little as six dollars a pop.
Recent reports underscore the fact that avian flu, the bird virus that could potentially mutate to cause a major epidemic in humans, is an ongoing threat. Just today, China announced the H5N1 strain of avain flu claimed its fifth victim there this month -- an 18-year-old man in the southwestern Guangxi province, according to Reuters.
Image credit ©iStockphoto.com/Jeffrey Smith
Tags:
flu,
pandemic,
masks
More News Blog:
Next: Not-so-wired White House: E-mail crash for Obama administration
Previous: Restricting calories may not extend life span for everyone
See what we're tweeting about
Deadline: Jul 25 2013
Reward: Varies
This challenge provides an opportunity for Solvers to build a web-based or mobile “app” to explore data relationships in scholarly conte
Deadline: Jul 14 2013
Reward: $1,000,000 USD
This is a Reduction-to-Practice Challenge that requires written documentation and&
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
14 Comments
Add CommentAnother dumb idea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho can wear a mask all day?
It might look "dumb" but you'll look even dumber sick or dieing in bed. think about it
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou would not need to wear all day, just at times of high risk, like going shopping (put on as you enter, then remove in parking lot)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Japanese have been using masks in daily life for years. People who are sick tend to wear masks in public, in addition to people who feel they are at risk of contracting airborn illnesses.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems stupid, but high-risk individuals such as teachers, students, etc. can avoid many sick-days with this simple precaution.
Oh, wow! What a great idea for the British who are angry about all the cams recording all their moves. They could ALL start wearing masks and confuse the h-e double toothpicks out of the authorities!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have always thought it was a strange social custom in the USA that people who are quite sick go to work and other places, spreading their disease. They don't seem to feel they have any obligation to avoid making other people sick, and it seems to be quite ok socially to go around being sick and contagious. It's interesting that people are more sensible in Japan.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat time to rob banks?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know two people, one working in a restaurant and the other working in a grocery store who have long been aware that simply washing your hands "at every opportunity" has cut incidence of getting flu and colds significantly. After they read this article about the benefits of wearing a mask: I'm sure they'll both start wearing them. Point being: people who are at risk (work with the public) are more aware and more cautious (if they're smart).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI join those who note that Americans are too lax about such sanitation issues - unlike the Japanese. Few Americans realize that the game has changed: not only do infections spread more rapidly thanks to air travel, there are more dangerous strains of "bugs" out there: like resistant Staph. Our elderly mother fell and got a cut on her leg - she "ignored it" for a week. The result: a lesion which grew to four inches and put her in the hospital for a couple weeks. It was MERSA, the resistant staph germ.
This leg wound - coupled with this elderly lady's poor response to instructions for healing, may have led to the formation of a blood clot: two weeks after her hospital stay, she had a stroke. She had a 2nd stroke Christmas Eve and died in mid-January. Message: we must all be more careful about the "new world" of disease and how we live in it.
"I join those who note that Americans are too lax about such sanitation issues".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's a cultural problem, to be sure. I don't think it stems from a deficiency of social responsibility. I think it results from a competing social pressure: work ethic.
I personally had a strong sense, early in my career, that one would be regarded as a slacker if one took too much sick time. Employer limits on sick leave reinforced this perception.
This is no longer a real problem for me. Thanks to good internet connectivity I can work from home.
mchapman wrote: "It's a cultural problem, to be sure. I don't think it stems from a deficiency of social responsibility. I think it results from a competing social pressure: work ethic."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCertainly, there is that element in the public psyche, and there is also the argument that companies can't be paying for "not working." But this is also cultural lag and cultural rigidity. Companies should rework policies to correct for this.
Also notice I gave two examples of employees who "work with the public." - Companies and restaurants in these areas have adapted under regulatory mandate: they encourage frequent hand washing.
There is no mandate anywhere (in the US) for wearing protective masks. The "wear a mask plan" is geared to go into effect when there's a declared pandemic emergency. I can only wonder what would happen if employees in restaurants and grocery stores decided on their own to start wearing protective masks while working. One can also wonder if waiting for a declared emergency might mean being "too late" for a lot of us.
It might look dumb, but they work. Got used to wearing a P2 during Calif. wild fire season. Better than dying or choking to death. Wore it to the grocery story today. The only comments I got were, "Where did you get that?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHaving lived and worked in both Europe and the USA, I can say that the reason Americans go to work sick is not because they are "lax" or lack social responsibility. It is due to the fact that sick pay is not mandated by law as it is in Europe, and most employers take sick time from the employee's vacation time. If there is no vacation time left, it comes out of the their paycheck. Oh, and did I mention that those Americans lucky enough to get paid vacation/sick time get about 10 - 15 days a year? Personally, I am lucky to get 22 days to cover all vacation, holidays, and sick time. Most of that goes to time off taking care of my child when he is sick. If I get a cold myself, I don't have much choice besides going to work anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHaving lived and worked in both Europe and the USA, I can say that the reason Americans go to work sick is not because they are "lax" or lack social responsibility. It is due to the fact that sick pay is not mandated by law as it is in Europe, and most employers take sick time from the employee's vacation time. If there is no vacation time left, it comes out of the their paycheck. Oh, and did I mention that those Americans lucky enough to get paid vacation/sick time get about 10 - 15 days a year? Personally, I am lucky to get 22 days to cover all vacation, holidays, and sick time. Most of that goes to time off taking care of my child when he is sick. If I get a cold myself, I don't have much choice besides going to work anyway.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi all,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe one thing which is confusing me now is that in reality there's no mask that can protect us at all. Most of FFP2,3 or N95, N100 masks can protect us for viruses bigger than 300nm - 0,03um. The problem is that Flu virus is between 80-120nm in size which is small enough to get through the mask and in fact we will get sick. There's an option but unfortunately only one company makes it. Nanomask which is a mask protecting everything bigger than 27nm-0,027um. How much is the true in the description and technical data in Nanomasks nobody knows, but if it's working like the producer is saying it will be effective to stop virus. Does anybody knows if there's another mask that can protect people from Flu?