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The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic

The present COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus, has highlighted the vital importance of appropriate personal protective equipment for all exposed health care workers. The single most important part of this armor is the N-95 mask. With the awareness that the virus is spread by...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Udwadia, Zarir F., Raju, Reyma Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7507920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32643641
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/lungindia.lungindia_339_20
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author Udwadia, Zarir F.
Raju, Reyma Sara
author_facet Udwadia, Zarir F.
Raju, Reyma Sara
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description The present COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus, has highlighted the vital importance of appropriate personal protective equipment for all exposed health care workers. The single most important part of this armor is the N-95 mask. With the awareness that the virus is spread by both droplets and through the aerosolized route, the N-95 provides protection that a surgical mask cannot match. This timely review looks at the special advantages that an N-95 offers over a surgical mask with specific reference to the COVID-19 epidemic. It also emphasizes the crucial importance of ensuring quality masks with a proper fit. Finally, with acute scarcities of N-95 masks being reported from hospitals globally, it reviews recent literature which attempts to prolong the life of these masks with extended use, reuse and decontamination of used masks.
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spelling pubmed-75079202020-10-02 The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic Udwadia, Zarir F. Raju, Reyma Sara Lung India Review Article The present COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the airborne SARS-CoV-2 virus, has highlighted the vital importance of appropriate personal protective equipment for all exposed health care workers. The single most important part of this armor is the N-95 mask. With the awareness that the virus is spread by both droplets and through the aerosolized route, the N-95 provides protection that a surgical mask cannot match. This timely review looks at the special advantages that an N-95 offers over a surgical mask with specific reference to the COVID-19 epidemic. It also emphasizes the crucial importance of ensuring quality masks with a proper fit. Finally, with acute scarcities of N-95 masks being reported from hospitals globally, it reviews recent literature which attempts to prolong the life of these masks with extended use, reuse and decontamination of used masks. Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2020 2020-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7507920/ /pubmed/32643641 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/lungindia.lungindia_339_20 Text en Copyright: © 2020 Indian Chest Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
spellingShingle Review Article
Udwadia, Zarir F.
Raju, Reyma Sara
The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short The N-95 mask: Invaluable ally in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort n-95 mask: invaluable ally in the battle against the covid-19 pandemic
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7507920/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32643641
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/lungindia.lungindia_339_20
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