{"id":256,"date":"2009-05-06T15:01:57","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T05:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dbohs.com\/?p=256"},"modified":"2020-05-14T00:56:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T14:56:14","slug":"surgical-masks-vs-p2-n95-respirators-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dbohs.com\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"Surgical masks vs P2 (N95) respirators #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent paper MacIntyre, C. R., S. Cauchemez, et al. (2009). “Face Mask Use and Control of Respiratory Virus Transmission in Households.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 15(2): 233-241<\/strong>. is available from the CDC  as free download<\/a> Unfortunately, despite the warning “We urge caution in extrapolating our results to school, workplace, or community contexts, or where multiple, repeated exposures may occur, such as in healthcare settings. <\/strong>“, the report is being taken in media reports to mean that surgical masks give adequate protection against the Influenza H1N1 swine flu virus.<\/p>\n

The paper studied the performance of un-fitted <\/strong>P2 masks and surgical masks for protection in the home<\/strong> against Influenza like diseases in the home found that they gave similar (60-80%) protection, though statistically they could not differentiate the approaches. The masks were only worn about 30% of the time and no information was given on the fitting instructions, despite this being a key piece of information. Interestingly, many of the references are about hand washing, but none (except for a 3M information sheet) were about the fit of respirators.<\/p>\n

For the very narrow context of the applicability of the paper, it was well designed. To me, the paper shows the real need for proper fit testing of P2\/ N95 respirators to reach their protection potential.<\/p>\n

I think most people who were concerned enough about swine flu to wear a face mask would want to get a high level of protection and know how to fit one to give significantly better protection than a surgical mask. Common surgical masks are not designed or certified for respiratory protection.<\/p>\n

Some of the papers and reports relating to both N95\/P2 respirators and surgical masks are:<\/p>\n