as coronavirus spreads through China
drug stores are selling out of surgical
masks take a look through the news
stories and you'll see photos of
concerned citizens with their faces
covered but is covering your mouth
enough to prevent this life-threatening
illness and if not what's really the
best way to stay healthy we spoke with
an expert to better understand this
outbreak so coronaviruses are a large
family of viruses that are responsible
for about 25 percent of cases of the
common cold before this latest outbreak
there were six corona viruses that were
known to infect humans and four of them
were just kind of common cold viruses
that occasionally could cause pneumonia
or severe disease corona virus is an
umbrella term that refers to a family of
upper respiratory diseases including the
common cold MERS and SARS the virus can
present in several ways sometimes as a
mild illness and sometimes as a
life-threatening disease the current
strain in China is highly contagious
hundreds of people have been infected
and several have died on January 21st it
was confirmed that this strain of corona
virus has made its way to the u.s. soft
surgical masks like the one shown here
are designed to prevent the wearer from
spreading their germs to others but they
won't prevent inhalation of airborne
germs their loose
sides reduced their effectiveness as a
barrier against disease to block out the
greatest number of airborne germs you'd
need an n95 respirator mask this mask is
what a surgeon would wear around a
patient with a highly infectious disease
like tuberculosis these masks aren't a
foolproof solution for the public either
surgeons get their masks fitted and
generally only wear them for a short
period of time just buying a mask from
the drugstore wouldn't give you the same
snug fit around the mouth that keeps
those germs from getting in furthermore
respirator masks actually filter air
which makes them a great barrier against
disease but according to dr. amos Adal
juh they restrict oxygen flow too much
to be worn
all day a study conducted by the
University of New South Wales found that
when warned correctly these masks had an
80% efficacy rate of protecting the
wearer against a proven viral infection
this study focused on the spread of
influenza but dr. Adalia says that the
two diseases spread in comparable ways
coronaviruses spread through the
respiratory route so that's through
coughs and sneezes and little droplets
to come out of your mouth and that's
pretty much very similar to the
influenza they do spread very readily
and that's the concern when you have one
that can cause severe illness
unfortunately there's a catch the same
study found that mask usage compliance
or the portion of people using the masks
effectively was only 50% with the
non-compliant users incorporated there
was no difference in infection rate
between the mask wears and the control
group so what's the best way to keep
yourself safe dr. a dodges advice is
simple so the best thing you can really
do is to practice good hygiene wash your
hands stay away from sick people if you
can if you're in those parts of China
where cases have occurred you want to
stay away from the live animal markets
which may have been part of the origin
of this new virus but there isn't
anything specific you can do other than
a lot of common sense and good hygiene
if you do choose to wear a mask try to
follow the rules don't remove the mask
frequently touch your face under the
mask or reuse it
doing so will greatly diminish its
benefits for more videos like this one
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