Respirator or face mask? Best H1N1 protection still debated.
- 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.
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.
“We simply did the analysis of the same data differently for the final paper,” she explains.
Article taken from cnn health
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