Bacterial and fungal isolation from face masks under the COVID-19 pandemic

[Edim]

Abstract

"The COVID-19 pandemic has led people to wear face masks daily in public. Although the effectiveness of face masks against viral transmission has been extensively studied, there have been few reports on potential hygiene issues due to bacteria and fungi attached to the face masks. We aimed to (1) quantify and identify the bacteria and fungi attaching to the masks, and (2) investigate whether the mask-attached microbes could be associated with the types and usage of the masks and individual lifestyles. We 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 bacterial colony numbers were greater on the face-side than the outer-side; the fungal colony numbers were fewer on the face-side than the outer-side. A longer mask usage significantly increased the fungal colony numbers but not the bacterial colony numbers. Although most identified microbes were non-pathogenic in humans; Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Cladosporium, we found several pathogenic microbes; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Aspergillus, and Microsporum. We also found no associations of mask-attached microbes with the transportation methods or gargling. We propose that immunocompromised people should avoid repeated use of masks to prevent microbial infection."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-15409-x

[FarPoint]

1. Change your mask several times a day.

It has been successful with people who work in surgical settings....

Let's just comply and prevent the spread of covid....Anti mask jibber jabber is exhausting.

[liberal_mama]

2. When there was a mask mandate, I saw so many people wearing filthy masks, white masks that were gray

My anti-masking neighbor told me about a kid at our elementary school who wore the same cloth mask every day for the whole year without washing it once. I asked why no one had helped the child and given him clean masks to wear.

I was wearing masks for several days when they were scarce during the beginning of the pandemic, but I was uncomfortable doing this because I worried about bacteria. I'm happy that masks are so available now that I can wear a fresh new one every day. I just ordered 350 more individually wrapped masks during Gmarket's latest shipping sale as it doesn't look like Covid is going to be getting better anytime soon.

On hot days, now that there is no mandate, I wear a valved 3M Aura that I pay $3+ bucks each (I have to import these from South Korea, they aren't available in USA) and it does hurt to toss them out after one use because they are such fine masks, but it's not worth keeping them and risking they could have germs growing on them.

[liberal_mama]

3. Remember all the people who mocked those of us for keeping our masks on in the car?

This is one of the reasons I always keep my mask on while in car. You shouldn't keep touching and taking your mask off and tossing it on a dirty dashboard or car seat. There is a proper way to remove it once you are home.