Face masks and containment of COVID-19: experience from South Korea

Lim, Soo; Yoon, Hyejung; Song, K-H; Kim, E.S.; Kim, H.B.

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2020.06.017

Cited by 36 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“… 53 This difference, despite evidence suggesting that wearing a face mask could reduce the risk of infection, 16 , 95–97 could be explained by the fact that at the beginning of the pandemic, there were inconsistencies regarding the advice for face masks although this changed. 96–98 Moreover, there was also a global shortage of masks initially with appreciable price rises in some countries. 25 , 99–103 This was seen initially in Saudi Arabia where approximately 35% of community pharmacies in some areas had face masks for sale from April 20 to May 15 2020.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice About Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and Its Psychological Impact on Students and Their Studies: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Pharmacy Students in Saudi Arabia

Alrasheedy¹,

Abdulsalim²,

Farooqui³

et al. 2021

RMHP

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Background Individuals’ knowledge, attitude and practice towards preventive and precautionary measures of COVID-19 are essential to control the spread of the disease. Consequently, the aims of the study were to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacy students towards the pandemic and to assess its psychological impact on them to provide future guidance. Methods A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted via a web-based survey in May 2020. All pharmacy students enrolled at Unaizah College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, were invited to take part in the study. Results A total of 232 out of 460 students took part in the study, giving a response rate of 50.43%. The mean total knowledge score was 9.87 ± 2.04 (maximum attainable score, 12). The majority of the participants (n=163; 70.3%) believed COVID-19 is a health threat to their community in the early months of the pandemic. Moreover, the majority (93%) also believed that the lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic was necessary to contain the pandemic. Encouragingly, 86.6% reported that they did not go to any crowded places during the pandemic with more female students avoiding crowded places compared to male students (91.6% versus 78.7%, respectively, P = 0.005). The majority (91%) also reported that they were following the strategies recommended by the authorities to prevent the spread of the virus. Encouragingly, 54.3% reported that the pandemic either had no effect or just a limited effect on their studies. However, 38.5% reported that they always felt or frequently felt nervous or anxious during the pandemic. Conclusion The study showed that pharmacy students had good knowledge as well as positive attitudes and good practices towards COVID-19 and the preventive measures. However, during the early months, the pandemic did have a negative psychological impact on a number of students. Consequently, proactive psychological and social support services to the students should be considered during the current and future pandemics. In addition, it is important to consider and proactively address key issues that could cause stress and anxiety among students when shifting to distance learning and assessments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice About Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and Its Psychological Impact on Students and Their Studies: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Pharmacy Students in Saudi Arabia

Alrasheedy¹,

Abdulsalim²,

Farooqui³

et al. 2021

RMHP

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“…In Malaysia, the strategy of hospital isolation of all suspected and confirmed individuals contributed to the reduction of local transmission. Our approach was similar to countries demonstrated lower CFR such as Singapore (0.05%) and Republic of Korea (2.10%) where "trace, test and treat" was practised [22] , [23] , [24] . In countries where selective hospitalisation was implemented, the CFR was much higher in Italy (14.24%), Iran (5.47%), United States (3.44%) and United Kingdom (15.25%) [ 16 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe COVID-19 infections in Malaysia: A nationwide observational study

Sim¹,

Chidambaram²,

Wong³

et al. 2020

The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific

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Background: COVID-19 emerged as a major public health outbreak in late 2019. Malaysia reported its first imported case on 25th January 2020, and adopted a policy of extensive contact tracing and hospitalising of all cases. We describe the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 cases nationwide and determine the risk factors associated with disease severity. Method: Clinical records of all RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 cases aged ≥12 years admitted to 18 designated hospitals in Malaysia between 1st February and 30th May 2020 with complete outcomes were retrieved. Epidemiological history, co-morbidities, clinical features, investigations, management and complications were captured using REDCap database. Variables were compared between mild and severe diseases. Univariate and multivariate regression were used to identify determinants for disease severity. Findings: The sample comprised of 5889 cases (median age 34 years, male 71.7%). Majority were mild (92%), and 3.3% required intensive care, with 80% admitted within the first five days. Older age (≥51 years), underlying chronic kidney disease and chronic pulmonary disease, fever, cough, diarrhoea, breathlessness, tachypnoea, abnormal chest radiographs and high serum CRP (≥5 mg/dL) on admission were significant determinants for severity (p < 0.05). The case fatality rate was 1.2%, and the three commonest complications were liver injuries (6.7%), kidney injuries (4%), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (2.3%). Interpretations: Lower case fatality rate was possibly contributed by young cases with mild diseases and early hospitalisation. Abnormal chest radiographic findings in elderly with tachypnoea require close monitoring in the first five days to detect early deterioration.

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“…Because of the test conditions of the European Norms, EN 14683 and EN 149, the possible protective function of the tested masks in a pandemic situation remains unclear, and some experts have hypothesized that medical face masks only protect others but have no significant self-protecting effect [ 6 ]. However, several studies have shown that medical face masks can protect the wearer as much as respirators do [ 9 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides social distancing and quarantine, one of the major factors preventing the spread of the virus is the practice of face covering [ 6 ]. Nurses and doctors are unable to maintain distances from their patients and are at high risks of acquiring the infection and transmitting it to others [ 7 ].…”

Section: Background/introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of medical face masks is recommended for protection from infections caused by droplets [ 10 ]. At the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, some experts, especially in Europe, advised against the usage of medical face masks for protection against SARS-CoV-2 [ 6 ]. This might be due to the testing method of medical face masks according to the EN 14683 standard.…”

Section: Background/introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Medical face masks offer self-protection against aerosols: An evaluation using a practical in vitro approach on a dummy head

et al. 2021

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Since the appearance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the question regarding the efficacy of various hygiene measures and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) has become the focus of scientific and above all public discussion. To compare respirators, medical face masks, and cloth masks and determine if it is recommendable to wear face masks to protect the individual wearer of the mask from inhaling airborne particles, we challenged 29 different masks with aerosols and tested the pressure drop as a surrogate for breathing resistance owing to the mask material. We found that Type II medical face masks showed the lowest pressure drop (12.9±6.8 Pa/cm2) and therefore additional breathing resistance, whereas respirators such as the KN95 (32.3±7.0 Pa/cm2) and FFP2 (26.8±7.4 Pa/cm2) showed the highest pressure drops among the tested masks. The filtration efficacy of the mask material was the lowest for cloth masks (28±25%) followed by non-certified face masks (63±19%) and certified medical face masks (70±10%). The materials of the different respirators showed very high aerosol retentions (KN95 [94±4%] and FFP2 [98±1%]). For evaluating the as-worn filtration performance simulating real live conditions each mask type was also tested on a standardized dummy head. Cloth masks and non-EN-certified face masks had the worst as-worn filtration efficacies among the tested masks, filtering less than 20% of the test aerosol. Remarkably, certified type II medical face masks showed similar (p>0.5) as-worn filtration results (47±20%) than KN95 masks (41±4%) and FFP2 masks (65±27%), despite having a lower pressure drop. Face shields did not show any significant retention function against aerosols in our experiment. Our results indicate that it seems recommendable to wear face masks for providing base protection and risk reduction against inhaling airborne particles, in low-risk situations. In our study, especially EN 14683 type II certified medical face masks showed protective effectiveness against aerosols accompanied by minimal additional breathing resistance. FFP2 Respirators, on the other hand, could be useful in high-risk situations but require greater breathing effort and therefore physical stress for users.

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Face masks and containment of COVID-19: experience from South Korea

Cited by 36 publications

References 15 publications

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice About Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and Its Psychological Impact on Students and Their Studies: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Pharmacy Students in Saudi Arabia

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice About Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and Its Psychological Impact on Students and Their Studies: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Pharmacy Students in Saudi Arabia

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for severe COVID-19 infections in Malaysia: A nationwide observational study

Medical face masks offer self-protection against aerosols: An evaluation using a practical in vitro approach on a dummy head

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