Discover the LifeSaving Benefits of Wearing Masks in Healthcare Settings in Ontario

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Cdc Report: Double Masking Can Block More Than 90 Percent Of Viral Particles

By Md Zillur Rahman Md Zillur Rahman Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 1, * , Md Enamul Hoque Md Enamul Hoque Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 2, * , Md Rubel Alam Md Rubel Alam Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 3 , Md Abdur Rouf Md Abdur Rouf Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 3 , Saiful Islam Khan Saiful Islam Khan Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 2 , Huaizhong Xu Huaizhong Xu Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 4, * and Seeram Ramakrishna Seeram Ramakrishna Scilit Preprints.org Google Scholar 5

Increasingly prevalent respiratory infectious diseases (e.g., COVID-19) have posed severe threats to public health. Viruses including coronavirus, influenza, and so on can cause respiratory infections. A pandemic may potentially emerge owing to the worldwide spread of the virus through persistent human-to-human transmission. However, transmission pathways may vary; respiratory droplets or airborne virus-carrying particles can have a key role in transmitting infections to humans. In conjunction with social distancing, hand cleanliness, and other preventative measures, the use of face masks is considered to be another scientific approach to combat ubiquitous coronavirus. Different types of face masks are produced using a range of materials (e.g., polypropylene, polyacrylonitrile, polycarbonate, polyurethane, polystyrene, polyester and polyethylene) and manufacturing techniques (woven, knitted, and non-woven) that provide different levels of protection to the users. However, the efficacy and proper disposal/management of the used face masks, particularly the ones made of non-biodegradable polymers, pose great environmental concerns. This review compiles the recent advancements of face masks, covering their requirements, materials and techniques used, efficacy, challenges, risks, and sustainability towards further enhancement of the quality and performance of face masks.

Because of its great spreading potential, pathogenicity, and mortality, coronavirus (COVID-19) discovered on 31 December 2019, in Wuhan, China, has spread over the globe. COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus that infects host cells through receptor-mediated endocytosis in conjunction with angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) [1]. Due to the extremely infectious characteristics of the COVID-19, WHO classified the health epidemic as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 [2]. Over 460, 280, 168 confirmed cases, including 6, 050, 018 fatalities [3] as of 16 March 2022, while the epidemic is still expanding. COVID-19 transmits from person to person through virus-carrying respiratory droplets expelled by infected individuals when they speak, cough, sneeze or exhale [4]. People nearby may inhale these droplets, and/or these can fall on bodies/surfaces that another person may touch, and subsequently become infected by touching their mouth, nose, and eyes [5, 6]. SARS-CoV has a basic reproduction number of 3.28 (1.4 to 6.49), which is higher than WHO predictions of 1.4 to 2.5, meaning that an infected person can infect about 3 to 4 persons in a vulnerable population [6].

How To Use Masks During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Fever, fatigue, myalgia, and dry cough are the most common symptoms of the COVID-19 [5, 7, 8, 9]. Other referred symptoms are sore throat, chills, nausea, coryza, diarrhea, vomiting, sputum production, breath shortness, headache, arthralgia, nasal congestion, hemoptysis, and conjunctival congestion [6]. COVID-19 infection typically results in mild disease (i.e., mild pneumonia or non-pneumonia) in approximately 80% of cases, with the majority of patients recovering, while 14 % experience more serious disease and 6% suffer critical sickness [6, 10, 11, 12]. Severe cases can result in severe pneumonia, cardiac injury, kidney failure, respiratory failure, and even death [5, 6, 10, 11, 13]. Pulmonary edema, septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction, and acute respiratory distress syndrome are all possible complications for critically ill patients [6, 11].

Various public health measures, including self-isolation, quarantine [14], social distancing [9, 15, 16], lockdowns, and curfews, have been implemented by governments to limit the spread of coronavirus infection. Reduced population mobility and interpersonal interaction, school closures, reduced use of public transportation, visitor bans, and paid sick leave to keep infected workers at home may all assist in lowering disease transmissions [17]. Despite the fact that preventative measures have been implemented to curb the coronavirus spreading, it continues to have a significant effect on mental health owing to a variety of psychological, economic, and social factors, including social isolation, loneliness, stress, depression, anxiety, fear-induced over-reactive behavior, loss of loved ones, and loss of employment, and frustration, guilt, boredom, anger, sadness, nervousness, worry, helplessness, depression, and insomnia, [16, 18]. Coronavirus has also created various types of societal stigma, including racism, discrimination, and judgmental behavior to isolated or quarantined people. Restrictions imposed on people during the coronavirus epidemic result in a substantial decline in mood, quality of life, and overall psychological well-being. In addition, the emergency has expanded into a worldwide public health and economic crisis affecting the $90 trillion global economies. Many people have lost their job due to the closure of a range of commercial sectors. However, public health interventions (e.g., quarantine) combined with limited mobility reduce carbon emissions, resulting in improved air quality and decreased water pollution in many places across the world [19, 20, 21, 22]. This pandemic situation also highlighted the advantages of specific kinds of activities (e.g., pharmaceuticals and medicine) [23].

The most common and effective preventative strategies, however, require an improvement in cleanliness habits (e.g., reducing face touching, frequent hand hygiene, sanitization of surroundings, and use of tissues and other protectives). In most instances, these precautions were insufficient, and COVID-19 compelled individuals to alter their habits, such as masks wearing in public and avoiding physical contact, or maintaining social distance [24]. Using a face mask can effectively reduce transmissibility per contact by restricting the respiratory droplets of infected individuals. Public mask-wearing can be regarded as the most effective means of preventing the transmission of the COVID-19 when the compliance is high and proper guidelines are followed. Polypropylene and polyethylene are the commonly used plastic materials to fabricate the face mask. Other polymers such as polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyamide, polyester, polylactic acid, and nylons are also used to manufacture them. However, improperly disposed of face masks made from long-lasting single-use plastics pose a new global environmental challenge. Therefore, this paper reviews the effects of face masks and their role in preventing coronavirus, materials and techniques used in manufacturing masks, associated challenges or risks involved in using masks, and their sustainability. Finally, the study concludes with concluding remarks.

Timeline: Cdc Mask Guidelines During The Covid Pandemic

Since Covid-19 disease mainly transmits through the spread of respiratory particles of infected individuals, reducing the rapid spread of the disease requires restricting direct contact with the infected individuals by ensuring quarantine (i.e., social distancing) and taking preventive measures to curb the transmission probability per contact [25]. According to the WHO, using a face mask alone is not enough to reduce the spreading or provide a reasonable level of protection against COVID-19; thus suggesting a face mask should be used as part of comprehensive preventive measures to curb the transmission and save lives [26]. The prevalence of evidence suggests that using a face mask effectively may reduce transmissibility per contact by restricting the respiratory particles of infected individuals in a community. When the compliance is high and proper guidelines are met, public mask-wearing is considered the most effective against the spread of the coronavirus. Several studies also indicated that the use of face masks by infected individuals is more effective than the susceptible people, i.e., health care providers in the context of community transmission to regional outbreaks. The evidence supporting the efficacy of public face mask-wearing can be divided into direct observational evidence and randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as discussed below.

There are only a few observational studies conducted in the case of the transmission of SARS-CoV-2; however, the efficacy of face masks in combatting COVID-19 is often backed by the observational evidence of face masks against other similar respiratory viruses (i.e., SARS). The evidence of using face masks against airborne transmission of respiratory diseases as a personal protective measure can be dated back to the 14th century, as stated by Wu [27]. Wu also identified cotton cloth face mask as the predominant means of personal protection, and his experiments showed that cotton cloth face mask is effective against airborne transmission of disease (i.e.,

Since Covid-19 disease mainly transmits through the spread of respiratory particles of infected individuals, reducing the rapid spread of the disease requires restricting direct contact with the infected individuals by ensuring quarantine (i.e., social distancing) and taking preventive measures to curb the transmission probability per contact [25]. According to the WHO, using a face mask alone is not enough to reduce the spreading or provide a reasonable level of protection against COVID-19; thus suggesting a face mask should be used as part of comprehensive preventive measures to curb the transmission and save lives [26]. The prevalence of evidence suggests that using a face mask effectively may reduce transmissibility per contact by restricting the respiratory particles of infected individuals in a community. When the compliance is high and proper guidelines are met, public mask-wearing is considered the most effective against the spread of the coronavirus. Several studies also indicated that the use of face masks by infected individuals is more effective than the susceptible people, i.e., health care providers in the context of community transmission to regional outbreaks. The evidence supporting the efficacy of public face mask-wearing can be divided into direct observational evidence and randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as discussed below.

There are only a few observational studies conducted in the case of the transmission of SARS-CoV-2; however, the efficacy of face masks in combatting COVID-19 is often backed by the observational evidence of face masks against other similar respiratory viruses (i.e., SARS). The evidence of using face masks against airborne transmission of respiratory diseases as a personal protective measure can be dated back to the 14th century, as stated by Wu [27]. Wu also identified cotton cloth face mask as the predominant means of personal protection, and his experiments showed that cotton cloth face mask is effective against airborne transmission of disease (i.e.,

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