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A Surgical Mask Strike

 

# 3838

 

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N-95 Respirator            Surgical Facemask

In what may be the most far-reaching story of today,  Tom Randall and Jason Gale of Bloomberg News bring us a very early report on a study conducted in China on the efficacy of surgical masks in protecting HCWs (Health Care Workers) against respiratory viruses.

 

Despite the current CDC recommendations (recently bolstered by the IOM report see IOM Recommends N95s For HCWs), many hospitals only provide surgical masks to their HCWs who are in routine contact with influenza patients. 

 

They reserve N95s for procedures (such as intubation, and nebulization) that are likely to generate aerosols.

 

Raina MacIntyre, head of public health at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, presented evidence at the ICAAC conference going on in San Francisco this week, of the lack of protection offered by surgical facemasks.

N95 masks, on the other hand, reduced influenza transmission by 75%.

 

The problem of course is, that despite recommendations by the HHS and OSHA going back to at least May of 2008, few hospitals have acquired sufficient N95 masks to protect their staff for the duration of a pandemic wave.

 

Now, with a pandemic upon us and the demand for N95s greatly exceeding global manufacturing capacity, we are facing serious shortfalls in supplies.

 

 

Surgical Face Masks Don’t Stop Influenza Germs From Spreading

 

By Tom Randall and Jason Gale

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Surgical masks worn by doctors since the 1918 flu pandemic to prevent the spread of infection don’t protect against respiratory viruses, according to a study that found thicker, more expensive respirators should be used.

 

Surgical masks didn’t stop the spread of flu and other respiratory illnesses during a five-week study involving 1,936 health-care workers at 24 hospitals in Beijing last winter. Thicker versions designed to better fit the face, called N95 masks and made by 3M Co., reduced flu by 75 percent. The N95s cost 5 to 10 times more, said study author Raina MacIntyre, head of public health at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

 

<SNIP>

“This is a landmark study that will change most public health approaches,” said Lindsay Grayson, a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne. “If you’re going to be truly protected, you’ll need an N95 mask. A number of governmental recommendations will need to be changed.”

 

<SNIP>

“It would not be ethical to recommend surgical masks for health-care workers,” MacIntyre said in an interview prior to her presentation. “They have significant leakage around the face. The findings fit everything we know from the experimental data about the poor quality of filtration, the poor fit.”

(Continue . . .)

 


This has been a contentious subject for quite some time, and one where the science, at least up till now, has been scant.  It remains to be seen how persuasive these latest findings are, and if they will influence hospital policies.

 

And of course, the big obstacle (beyond comfort of wearing N95s, and the costs), is the limited supply of respirators. 

 

Here are a few of my earlier reports the regarding masks and respirator controversy.

 

 

Nursing Survey Shows Hospital Deficiencies
IOM Meeting On PPEs For HCWs
IOM PPE Workshop Webcast Continues
Nurses Protest Lack Of PPE’s
Though Your Mask Is Lovely It’s The Wrong Mask
Report: Nurses File Complaint Over Lack Of PPE
California Nurses Association Statement On Lack Of PPE
HCPs At Risk

Related Post:

Influenza
HCW

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