One study in Hong Kong found that routine hand washing and wearing masks can reduce the risk of transmission of influenza virus among family members when implemented properly.
The findings, published in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the situation is considered critical to the pandemic, if the number of patients should be quarantined at home when the hospitals lack isolation facilities.
“During the pandemic period, existing resources may not be sufficient to accommodate all the patients infected with the flu, and quarantine methods will be needed at home,” write the researchers.
“Our results found that hand hygiene and use of masks can reduce the transmission of the virus if implemented as soon as possible after the symptoms begin to appear in the first patient was infected with the virus.”
Led by public health experts, Ben Cowling of the University of Hong Kong, the researchers examined a number of positive patients suffering from either influenza A or B.
With family members of patients, often from those who previously entered in one of the following three groups: those who had health education, a group that regularly washing his hands, and groups that regularly washing hands and wearing masks.
Of the 259 households involved in the study, 60 households were found to be infected with the virus in a period of seven days after such measures were introduced. However, there are fewer infections in households where two suggestions have been conditioned properly.
“The hand hygiene and masks seem to prevent the spread of the disease in the household when applied within 36 hours of the patients who experience early symptoms of the disease,” write the researchers.
“These findings suggest that treatment without pharmaceutical assistance necessary to reduce the Inter-pandemic and pandemic influenza.”
