How do face masks works?
At the start of the pandemic, there were mixed messages on whether or not the public should be wearing face masks. This left many wondering if face masks work and why they should bother wearing one. The good news is, they do help protect us!
The guidelines for COVID-19 is rapidly developing, and confusing us all. In this scenario, we can look to other well-established healthcare guidelines to understand how face masks protect us from becoming infected and infecting others.
This may question us, what exactly do these masks do?
Table of Contents
How do face masks work?
1. They keep your respiratory droplets from spreading to others!
The CDC outlines three transmission-based precautions to help stop the spread of various pathogens: contact, droplet, and airborne. A pathogen is the agent that causes a disease, and different pathogens use different methods to spread.
Surgical masks are a key protective measure in droplet precautions and airborne precautions. Healthcare settings routinely use surgical face masks to prevent the spread of infections such as influenza, pneumonia, and meningitis. In what the CDC terms “source control”, they outline that the infected individual should wear a mask to help prevent transmission.
Spreading of these viruses and bacteria happens through respiratory droplets. These respiratory droplets are generated when a person is coughing, sneezing, or talking. That’s right, even just by talking!
If you are infected, the pathogen can travel through your respiratory droplets and be transmitted to people around you, or they can contaminate surfaces. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic we may be unaware of disease vector around us. That is why wearing a mask helps you keep your droplets to yourself when interacting with others.
2. They protect you from infected individuals!
In regards to the same CDC transmission-based precautions, the use of specific personal protective equipment can decrease your chances of contracting various pathogens. Viruses and bacteria spread by respiratory droplets can infect you by traveling into your mouth, nose, and eyes.
Wearing a mask properly helps block infectious particles from finding a home in your mouth and nose. COVID-19, in most cases, is believed to be spread by respiratory droplets. Thus, wearing a mask can help reduce your risk of contracting the disease.
Different levels of face masks
There are different levels of mask that offers different levels of protection. The American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an international standards organization that develops technical standards for many different fields-including healthcare.
They put face masks through a series of five tests to determine what standards they meet.
These tests are:
- Bacterial filtration,
- Particle filtration,
- Synthetic blood splatter,
- Flammability, and
- Breathability.
Based on specific criteria, the masks are sorted into one of three levels after they are tested. Level 1 offers the lowest level of protection, while level 3 offers the highest. Patriot Medical Devices offers masks that have been tested and proven to function at the ASTM 3 standard. Patriot masks offer the highest level of protection against particles and fluids, while also being comfortable to wear!
This article originally appeared on Patriot Medical Devices
References
- Transmission Based Precautions: https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/basics/transmission-based-precautions.html
- Modes of transmission of virus causing COVID-19: implications for IPC precaution recommendations: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/modes-of-transmission-of-virus-causing-covid-19-implications-for-ipc-precaution-recommendations
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Dr Sunit Sanjay Ekka is a physiotherapist in practice for the last 15 years. He has done his BPT from one of the premium Central Government physiotherapy colleges, ie, SVNIRTAR. The patient is his best teacher and whatever he gets to learn he loves to share it on his Youtube channel and blog.
Thanks for sharing this blog. Masks one of the essential thing during this pandamic helps in creating a physical barrier that catches these droplets and prevents them from spreading as far into the surrounding air as they normally would.