If when you get home after making your essential purchases, the first thing you do is remove your mask, we have important news for you. Now, a new study suggests that you should continue using it to avoid a possible spread of coronavirus.
Research published last Thursday in BMJ Global Health showed that wearing a mask at home was 79% effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, but only when family members started wearing a mask before SARS symptoms appeared. -CoV-2 in the first infected person.
"This study confirms that the highest risk of transmission in the home is prior to the onset of symptoms, but that precautions, such as the use of masks, disinfection, and social distancing in homes, can prevent transmission of COVID-19 during the pandemic, "says the document.
Although health authorities reported that social distancing and the correct use of face masks could prevent the transmission of the disease, there was little evidence to prove whether it was effective within the home.
So for this analysis, the researchers called 460 people from 124 families , in Beijing, China, who lived with an infected person, and asked about home hygiene and other health behaviors during the pandemic.
The result? Families who had close contact, such as eating around a table or watching television together, were associated with an 18-fold increased risk . According to the investigation, daily close contact with a family member experiencing symptoms increased the risk for others, even if they started wearing a mask at that time.
In this way, some members of the scientific community, who did not participate in the study, recognized its importance at this time when confinement began to be lifted in several countries.
For example, Sally Bloomfield of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in a statement, according to CNN , that "this document is important because it comes at a time when, as confinement is relaxed, there is the risk that a person entering the house has become infected, but is not aware of this. "
For her part, Professor Trish Greenhalgh , from the University of Oxford, supports the idea of Bloomfield and indicated that it is worrying, since this action is something that few people currently do in their own homes, especially when they are not symptomatic.
"Worryingly, while people who wore masks before they were symptomatic were significantly less likely to pass it [the disease] on to others in the home, those who only started wearing it after they became symptomatic were unable to protect the family members, "added Greenhalgh.
However, other experts have pointed out that this finding has some limitations, because although the results of the evaluation of the use of masks were reliable, they did not collect data on the concentration of disinfectant used by families.
And it is that Dr. Antonio Lazzarino , from University College London, told CNN that the study itself is not enough to make official recommendations of any kind, since the researchers did not clarify if the families used N95 masks, surgical masks or face masks basic cloth.
"This study is not a solid science, since it has several limitations in conception and statistical analysis. The main limitation is that it was designed at the family level, rather than at the individual level," he said.
See also:
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