A preliminary report suggesting that N95 respirators -- filtering devices worn over the mouth and nose -- protect against swine FLU better than surgical face masks seems to be incorrect, researchers revealed during a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
In fact, surgical face masks, which are cheaper and easier to wear, may be just as good as N95 respirators. At the very least, researchers can't prove that one is better than the other. It's the latest wrinkle in a continuing debate over how to protect health-care workers from the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.
THESE ARE SURGICAL MASKS
Raina MacIntyre, Ph.D., a professor of infectious diseases epidemiology and the head of the University of New South Wales School of Public Health and Community Medicine, in Sydney, Australia, says the research team didn't exactly retract the findings.
"I would certainly wear an N95 respirator if I were exposed to infectious patients". --Raina MacIntyre, Ph.D.
For the new analysis, the researchers removed a control group of nearly 500 health-care workers and made other statistical adjustments. Ultimately, the difference in infection rates between mask and respirator users was not statistically significant.
"[The study] still shows a likely superiority of N95s, with half the rate of infection compared to surgical [masks]," MacIntyre says. "But the study was probably underpowered to pick up statistical significance when we removed the control group."
The N95 respirator is a tightly fitted facial mask designed to filter out even very fine airborne particles, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Looser-fitting surgical masks protect against large-particle droplets, splashes, sprays, or splatter, the FDA says, but they don't completely block the germs from coughs and sneezes.
To figure out which protective device is best, MacIntyre and her colleagues tracked hospital workers in Beijing, China, who wore surgical masks or N95 respirators, and compared rates of influenza and respiratory illness. Preliminary findings were presented at a meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in September 2009. Final results have yet to be published.
.......sourced from health.com
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