According to Laurence Wein, pandemic flu will kill us all. And hand-washing ain't gonna stop it. Indeed, researchers have apparently found that aerosol transmission -- where the virus in inhaled -- is dominant in influenza infection. That means hand-washing, which works against contact transmission, won't do much. So what're we going to do? Look ugly:
the single most effective intervention is face protection. And because roughly one-third of influenza transmissions occur before an infected person exhibits symptoms, these precautions should be taken whenever people are in the same room throughout the pandemic period.
There are two kinds of face protection: N95 respirators, as worn by construction workers, for instance, and surgical masks of the sort worn by dental hygienists. (The respirators cost roughly a dollar apiece, the surgical masks 10 cents.) Their efficacy in preventing aerosol transmission depends on three factors: the extent to which the face filter prevents virus particles from passing through, how tightly the device fits and — most important — how long people can be coerced into wearing them.
To our surprise, we found that the filters in surgical masks, although not as good as the filters in N95 respirators, are still quite effective. And although a surgical mask fits much more loosely and allows more leakage, it's also more comfortable — and therefore likely to be effective because it's used more. Wearing nylon hosiery over a surgical mask essentially eliminates the face leakage, making this combination a practical, albeit macabre, alternative. The less comfortable N95 respirators would probably result in lower compliance.
So surgical masks fitted with nylon hosiery. Well, at least STD transmission will fall as well.
