Neither Surgical Nor Cotton Masks Effectively Filter SARS COV-2: Study

For preventing the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 from the coughs of patients with COVID-19, both surgical and cotton masks were found to be ineffective, revealed study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

A study conducted at two hospitals in Seoul, South Korea, found that when COVID-19 patients coughed into either type of mask, droplets of virus were released to the environment and external mask surface.

‘Recommendations to wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 may not be effective.’

During respiratory viral infection, face masks are thought to prevent transmission, leading health care experts to recommend their use during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a shortage of both N95 and surgical masks, which have been shown to prevent the spread of influenza virus, cotton masks have gained interest as a substitute. However, it is not known if surgical or cotton masks worn by patients with COVID-19 prevent contamination of the environment.

Researchers from Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea instructed 4 patients with COVID-19 to cough 5 times each onto a petri dish while wearing the following sequence of masks: no mask, surgical mask, cotton mask, and again with no mask. Mask surfaces were swabbed with aseptic Dacron swabs in the following sequence: outer surface of surgical mask, inner surface of surgical mask, outer surface of cotton mask, and inner surface of cotton mask. The researchers found SARS COV-2 on all surfaces.

Media contacts : The lead author, Sung-Han Kim, M.D, can be reached at kimsunghanmd@hotmail.com or +82-2-3010-3305.

Source: Eurekalert