The Coming Influenza Pandemic?: September 2006::
Thailand is screening for herbs that will help fight the bird flu. To fight bird flu, Taiwan is asking market vendors to stop slaughtering birds on demand.
http://influenzapandemic.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.htmlHOME |
Will masks stop bird flu? US students experiment
Thursday, February 1, 2007
More than 2,000 students living in University of Michigan dormitories will wear masks and use hand sanitizer to see if they develop lower rates of influenza than students not using such protections
Maggie Fox
- Reuters
Can wearing a face mask and regularly cleaning hands stop the spread of deadly bird ? Students at the University of Michigan started a living experiment on Tuesday to find out.
They are using the peak of season to see if simple cotton masks and little bottles of will protect them.
Health experts fear the H5N1 avian influenza virus might mutate any moment and start a pandemic -- a global epidemic that could kill millions. If not H5N1, some other new virus could do the same, world health officials agree.
They also agree there is no easy way to stop one. Viruses are very difficult to treat with drugs, unlike , which can usually be stopped with antibiotics.
Antivirals exist to treat flu, but are in limited supply. Vaccines take time to make, and there is very limited capacity to produce them. So low-tech measures will be the first line of defense against any rapidly spreading new disease.
While influenza is hardly new, doctors do not fully understand or agree on how it is spread.
The virus is carried in droplets that can be coughed or sneezed, and a great deal of evidence shows it can survive in little droplets on surfaces, to be picked up with an errant finger and transferred to nose or mouth.
More than 2,000 living in University of Michigan dormitories will wear masks and use hand sanitizer to see if they develop lower rates of influenza than students not using such protections.
Sciencing — Blogs, Pictures, and more on WordPress::
How many tax dollars will be wasted in Alaska by denying global warming — 1 comment Will masks stop bird flu? US students experiment
http://wordpress.com/tag/sciencingHOME |
Health News Stories::
Most bird flu viruses do not jump species to people. and on us if the lamentations of the next blue-ribbon panel will be intoned over
http://www.wanttoknow.info/healthnewsstories-260-20HOME |
The dense and intimate living conditions of are perfect for such an experiment, says Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the who is leading the study. Students there share sleeping quarters, bathrooms, hallways and dining areas.
Grassroots Science::
turned to childrens books to help stop the spread of bird flu into the country. While the shipping will go past us, the Kuskokwim River is too shallow,
http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/?s=BBCHOME |
Students in one group will use hand sanitizer and wear simple cotton surgical masks. Another group will use only the masks and a third group will get no extra protections.
They will use the products as soon as influenza is detected and reported among students.
The will simply watch and see if the groups get influenza and related illnesses at different rates. The U.S. flu season generally starts in October and lasts through March, peaking in February.
"It's going to be a group effort, that's for sure," said Allison Aiello, an assistant professor of epidemiology.
The H5N1 flu remains mainly a disease of birds, but it has infected 270 people since 2003 and killed 164 of them. If it begins to spread as easily from person to person as seasonal flu, there will be no stopping a pandemic, experts say.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=65197
it didn't work so well, students didn't like to wear the masks.
I thought, this were a new study ?
mflu
Reducing transmission of influenza by face masks
http://www.mflu.org/
Study Outline
Residence halls have been randomly selected to three study arms:
Intervention arms:
The face mask and hand hygiene arm (Bursley Hall)
The face mask only arm (Couzens Hall, Alice Lloyd Hall, Betsy Barbour and Helen Newberry)
Control arm:
The control arm which will incorporate no intervention(East Quadrangle and Stockwell Hall)
All participants are encouraged to watch the short education video that will explain all the details of the M-FLU study, including when, where, and for how long participants should wear the face masks.
For participants in the intervention groups (Bursley Hall, Betsy Barbour House, Helen Newberry House, Couzens Hall, and Alice Lloyd Hall), the video will also review the hand hygiene component of the study and how to properly wear the face mask.
If any participant has an illness with a cough and at least one of several symptoms (fever or feverishness, body aches, or chills), they will be asked to contact the Study Coordinator as soon as possible and a nurse will come to the hall and take a throat swab culture to test for influenza. A study participant will be paid $25 for the culture after a throat swab.
All participants are asked to complete one demographic survey after enrollment and weekly surveys asking about hygiene practices and the occurrence of illness symptoms. All surveys are available online at surveymonkey.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intervention arms
Participants in the intervention arms will be given supplies of sanitizer and masks and asked to record their use, overall hygiene practices, and the occurrence of any influenza-like illness symptoms via weekly surveys on surveymonkey.com
For the intervention arms of the study, hand hygiene and sanitizer use will be put into effect when UHS identifies the first case of flu on campus. Further, face masks will be used when an outbreak of two or more flu cases have been identified in one week. The masks will continue until the end of the outbreak or a period of six weeks, whichever is shorter.
Participants in the intervention arms will be paid $100 at the end of the study for wearing face masks or face masks and hand hygiene use in addition to completing all weekly online surveys.
Control arm
Participants in the control arm will be asked to record their overall hygiene practices and the occurrence of any influenza-like illness symptoms via weekly surveys on SurveyMonkey.com
Participants in the control arm will be paid $40 at the end of the study for completing all weekly online surveys.
sponsors of this study are:
University of Michigan, School of Public Health
University Housing
University Health Service
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (funder)
What I think is good about this test is whether or not the students can maintain the discipline necessary to make the test results quantifiable. In other words, a sociological test within the scientific test. Behavioral results will be more important than medical results. We know masks and hand sanitizer work in both cases -- if properly applied.
Of course, they are missing the ultimate motivation for maintaining hygienic discipline, namely watching their peers drop like flies. At any rate, I wish them every success.
There is another factor which is emerging on the market-having a N95 mask patient mask that also offers oxygen. Filtered oxygen masks are beginning to make an appearance from a few manufacturers in Canada. Test results were published in October 2006 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine (citation below). This particular mask filters the exhaled breaths of the potentially infected patient, hoping to stop any infectious agents at the source. The inflow of oxygen decreases the work of breathing normally associated with
N95 masks.
It was designed to address the issue that a patient with moderate shortness of breath can't wear a surgical mask if they are receiving oxygen by mask. The idea is that it won't replace PPE, but offers a considerable amount of protection from the onset (before diagnosis and/or isolation is available).
The citation to the article is:
Modified N95 Mask Delivers High Inspired Oxygen Concentrations While Effectively Filtering Aerosolized Microparticles.
Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 48, Issue 4, Pages 391-391
they also might find some useful details how to improve
comfort and thus acceptance
The study was in February. Is it over yet? Any results?
 Red Hat's Rough Recovery From CFO Exit
 Windows Live Finds a New, Pre-installed Home
|
