( Reuters Health) – 2 new literature reviews suggest face masks offer some security to the user and when widely used by the general public they considerably minimize the spread of the brand-new coronavirus.
The reviews, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, look specifically at the impact of masking on COVID-19 transmission.
One report evaluated the effect of masking by the public on the spread of the virus. Scientists examined over 100 research study articles and concluded that masking could substantially reduce the spread of viruses, consisting of SARS-CoV-2, without threats to the wearer.
” Our evaluation clearly shows that masks and face coverings used by members of the public are extremely effective in decreasing the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” said study leader Dr. Thomas Czypionka, head of the Health Economics and Health Policy System at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria and checking out senior research fellow at the London School of Economics and Government.
” A growing body of evidence suggests that the virus is transferred through drops in close contact scenarios and through aerosols, little particles hovering in the air for prolonged periods of time that accumulate particularly in closed and congested areas,” Dr. Czypionka said in an e-mail. “Such circumstances should be prevented of course, but if you can’t – for example, on public transportation, in shops and so on – masks and face coverings can significantly reduce the threat of infection, mainly by source control, that is, by trapping the particles exhaled.
There are lots of misunderstandings about masks, Dr. Czypionka said. “One is that they lead to physiological modifications like elevated carbon dioxide levels or decreased oxygen levels in the blood,” he included. “Masks and face coverings may cause discomfort for some individuals, but we found no empirical proof for masks to cause harm.”
The 2nd report– an upgrade to a “living review” of data on mask usage by the public and by healthcare employees– focused mainly on three studies: one study of masking and the avoidance of SARS-CoV-2 in a community setting (the DANMASK trial) and 2 research studies of mask usage in healthcare settings.
The DANMASK open label trial, which included 6,024 community house adults in Denmark, found that the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst individuals was 2%. Surgical mask use as compared to no mask usage was associated with a small reduction in threat for infection, but the finding was not statistically significant, the researchers noted.
” The research study recommends that masks might have small benefits in minimizing the threat of infection in the wearer,” stated the report’s lead author, Dr. Roger Chou, a professor in the School of Medicine at the Oregon Health and Sciences University.
Regrettably, Denmark is a place where it would be harder to show benefits due to the fact that the infection rate there is low and people have actually been good about following guidelines, such as social distancing and handwashing, Dr. Chou said.
” One crucial reason to use masks is to prevent those who do not recognize they are contaminated or have moderate symptoms from infecting others,” Dr. Chou said. “But this study wasn’t designed to assess that.”
Of the 2 other research studies, one, which included 16,397 health care workers and very first responders, found that usage of an N95 or surgical mask all of the time versus not all of the time was connected with a reduced threat for infection. The 2nd research study, which included 20,614 asymptomatic health care employees, found that the danger for infection was reduced with any mask usage versus no mask usage.
The update of the living quick evaluation is necessary, said Juan Jesus Carrero, a teacher of public health in the department of medical public health and statistics at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “In interpreting the results of the DANMASK study, it is important to bear in mind that it was not a research study of source control, and therefore doesn’t tell us about the ability of community mask using to decrease general transmission in the pandemic,” Carrero stated in an e-mail.
The new info consisted of in Dr. Chou’s research study was invited by Dr. Catherine Clase, an associate professor in the department of medicine at McMaster University and a member of the Centre of Quality in Protective Equipment and Materials. “The 2 extra observational research studies on mask wearing follow the expected degree of security based upon the authors’ previous work and the meta-analysis on the results of masks in the transmission of non-COVID coronaviruses,” Dr. Clase stated in an email.
The Czypionka article highlighted the value of masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Clase stated. “I concur with their evaluation that masks can play an important function in reducing the spread of particles of all sizes,” she added.
Calling the Czypionka article “outstanding,” Carrero applauded the authors for pulling together “a network of evidence on the varied questions which have surrounded mask usage considering that the beginning of the pandemic. As they summarize, universal neighborhood masking has been connected with less new cases and lower mortality in every research study to examine this concern.”
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2L8l6h3 and https://bit.ly/3n3olDD Annals of Internal Medication, online December 29, 2020.
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