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Volume 15, Number 2—February 2009
CME ACTIVITY - Research

Face Mask Use and Control of Respiratory Virus Transmission in Households

C. Raina MacIntyreComments to Author , Simon Cauchemez, Dominic E. Dwyer, Holly Seale, Pamela Cheung, Gary Browne, Michael Fasher, James Wood, Zhanhai Gao, Robert Booy, and Neil Ferguson
Author affiliations: University of New South Wales School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (C.R. MacIntyre, H. Seale, J. Wood, Z. Gao); Children's Hospital at Westmead, The University of Sydney, Sydney (C.R. MacIntyre, P. Cheung, R. Booy, G. Browne); Imperial College London, London, UK (S. Cauchemez, N. Ferguson); Westmead Hospital, Sydney (D.E. Dwyer); The Wentworth Division of General Practice, Sydney (M. Fasher)

Main Article

Table 4

Intention-to-treat analysis used in the study*

Data Control group, no. (%) All masks
Surgical masks
P2 masks
No. (%) RR (95% CI)† p value† No. (%) RR
(95% CI)† p value† No. (%) RR
(95% CI)† p
value†
By house n = 50 n = 93 n = 47 n = 46
ILI
12 (24)
25 (27)
1.12
(0.62–2.03)
0.84

15 (32)
1.33
(0.70–2.54)
0.50

10 (22)
0.91
(0.43–1.89)
0.81
By individual n = 100 n = 186 n = 94 n = 92
ILI
16 (16)
33 (18)
1.11
(0.64–1.91)
0.75

19 (20)
1.29
(0.69–2.31)
0.46

14 (15)
0.95
(0.49-1.84)
1
Laboratory confirmed infections
Influenza A 0 3 (2) 1 (1) 2 (2)
Influenza B 0 1 (0.5) 0 1 (1)
RSV 1 (1) 1 (0.5) 0 0
hMPV 0 0 0 0
Adenoviruses 0 2 (1) 0 2 (2)
PIV‡ 1 (1) 1 (0.5) 1 (1) 0
Coronaviruses§ 1 (1) 0 0 0
Rhinoviruses 0 5 (3) 3 (3) 2 (2)
Enteroviruses 0 0 0 0
Picornoviruses 0 1 (0.5) 0 1 (1)
Total 3 (3) 14 (8) 2.51
(0.74–8.5) 0.19 6 (6) 2.13
(0.55–8.26) 0.32 8 (9) 2.90
(0.79–10.6) 0.12

*RR, relative risk; CI, confidence interval; ILI, influenza-like illness; RSV, respiratory syncytial virus; hMPV, human metapneumovirus; PIV, parainfluenza virus.
†Reference group is the control group.
‡Types 1–3; 229E/OC43.
§Types 1–3.

Main Article

Page created: September 24, 2012
Page updated: September 24, 2012
Page reviewed: September 24, 2012
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