Surgical mask

Three surgeons operating with surgical masks. Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, circa. 1990

A surgical mask is intended to be worn by health professionals during surgery and at other times to catch the bacteria shed in liquid droplets and aerosols from the wearer's mouth and nose.

Outside health care facilities, simple, inexpensive masks of similar appearance are commonly worn in heavily populated centres in East Asia to help prevent spreading the common cold. Furthermore they were widely used in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Toronto, Canada during outbreaks of the SARS virus, and more recently in Mexico City during the swine flu outbreak.

Modern surgical masks are made from paper or other non-woven material, and are discarded after each use.

In Japanese fashion, the surgical mask is used as an accessory for the visual kei fashion scene.

Effectiveness

Simple surgical masks protect wearers from splashes in the mouth with body fluids. They also remind wearers not to touch their mouth or nose, which could otherwise transfer viruses and bacteria after having touched a contaminated surface (fomite). They can also reduce the spread of infectious droplets (carrying bacteria or viruses) that are created when the wearer coughs or sneezes. They are not designed to protect the wearer from inhaling such particles. A surgical mask will trap some particles but is much less effective than a mask designed for this purpose.

A respirator mask conforming to United States standard NIOSH N95 or European standard EN 149 FFP2 is recommended to reduce the exposure of the wearer to potentially infectious aerosols and airborne liquid droplets during contact with pandemic flu patients.