It has been revealed once again that the face masks that we have been made to use during the covid pandemic cause nothing but harm to our health. Check out the latest reports that have been published in Nature Medical Journal.
Face masks cause harm to our health
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for people to wear face masks in public on a daily basis. While there has been extensive research on the effectiveness of face masks in preventing viral transmission, there have been few studies on the potential hygiene issues caused by bacteria and fungi that attach to the masks.
The objective of this study was twofold.
First, to quantify and identify the bacteria and fungi that attach to face masks, and second, to investigate whether these microbes can be associated with the types and usage of masks and individual lifestyles.
To achieve this, the experts surveyed 109 volunteers on their mask usage and lifestyles, and cultured bacteria and fungi from either the face-side or outer-side of their masks.
The number of bacterial colonies was higher on the side of the mask that faces the wearer’s face than the outer side, while the number of fungal colonies was lower on the face-side compared to the outer side.
A longer duration of mask usage led to a significant increase in fungal colony numbers but not bacterial colony numbers. It’s worth noting that most of the microbes identified were non-pathogenic to humans: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Cladosporium, we found several pathogenic microbes; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Aspergillus, and Microsporum.
It has been revealed the fact that experts also found no associations of mask-attached microbes with the transportation methods or gargling. They proposed that immunocompromised people should avoid repeated use of masks to prevent microbial infection.
Check out the complete notes in the original article in Nature.
