Health
Should you wear a face mask in public to protect you from the coronavirus?
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TORONTO —
Some Canadians concerned about coronavirus in the wake of one confirmed and another presumptive case in Canada have been strapping on surgical masks to go outside. But can these face masks actually guard against the virus?
According to doctors, the answer for the average person is largely no — but context and setting need to be taken into account.
WHEN SHOULD YOU WEAR A MASK?
“I think the important part here is trying to use them in the right context,” Dr. Susy Hota told CTV News on Friday.
Surgical masks are a common — and necessary — sight in a hospital setting, she said, where patients, family members, doctors and nurses are in a closed environment with numerous individuals impacted by various illnesses.
But that’s very different from wearing a surgical mask while walking down the street.
“At this time there’s absolutely no reason for people to be walking around wearing masks in public,” Hota said, adding that the only reason to do so would be on the advice of a health-care professional for a reason unrelated to coronavirus.
In a press conference Monday updating the public on the new presumptive case of coronavirus in Ontario, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said his office has “never recommended the wearing of masks in public.”
IS ONE TYPE OF MASK MORE USEFUL THAN ANOTHER?
Surgical face masks have been flying off the shelves in several cities around Canada ever since coronavirus reports started ramping up.
The most common face masks are loose surgical masks with elastic loops that go around the ears. The masks cover the mouth without creating a seal around it. One side is generally coloured blue, and is meant to face outwards. The top of the mask has a metal strip to mold to the bridge of the nose.
These masks do little for a healthy person, doctors say, but they could be useful for someone who is sick and trying not to spread the illness.
“If you’re someone who’s actually sick, you might have a cold or flu and you want to protect others, that type of mask will protect droplets from going out into the air (when you cough or sneeze),” Gianni Del Negro, a pharmacy manager with London Drugs in Vancouver, told CTV Vancouver.
These surgical masks will not protect you from the new coronavirus, he said.
The N95 respirator mask, which is made of a thicker material and designed to fit more closely to the face, may be more effective at blocking viruses in general, he added, but it needs to be fit tested, worn properly and replaced frequently — making them inefficient for regular use by the public.
However, there’s no evidence that those masks would work against the new coronavirus either.
WHY ARE FACE MASKS INEFFECTIVE?
Many people don’t follow proper health etiquette while wearing a facial mask, Williams said, which essentially negates any benefits a mask could’ve had.
“I see people wearing the mask, and then they’re handling stuff and they put their hand in the mask and touch their mouth,” Williams said. “The mask may not be cleaned on a regular basis so you actually may be re-circulating stuff.”
He acknowledged that the masks “may give that person some solace,” but stressed that there is no medical need for a healthy person to wear a surgical mask in public in Ontario.
It’s believed that the coronavirus is spread the way many respiratory illnesses are: by droplets when an infected individual sneezes or coughs. This means it’s more likely for a person to become infected if they have close, continuous contact with someone who is already infected, as opposed to passing a sick person on the street.
Dr. Sohail Ghandi, president of the Ontario Medical Association, told the Canadian Press that “handwashing is more effective than face masks with this particular virus, particularly if you’re not infected.”
Hota echoed these concerns, telling CTV News on Monday that since a virus can easily be spread by touching a surface a sick person has coughed on and then touching your own face, it’s significantly more important to wash your hands frequently, and avoid touching your eyes and mouth.
According to Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, the best thing people can do if they are feeling ill is simply to stay home, and to seek medical attention if symptoms worsen.
If a sick person needs to travel on public transit, observing sneezing and coughing etiquette by coughing into an elbow and turning away from other passengers is important.
Officials have stressed numerous times that the risk to Canadians is low.
Williams reiterated in Monday’s press conference that the newest presumptive case in Canada is unsurprising as she is the wife of the man who was the first confirmed case in Canada, and both of them recently returned to Toronto from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak. The biggest risk factor for this disease is having travelled to the affected areas in China.
Hota’s advice to the public is to avoid the kind of panic that drives people to buy 40 surgical masks at their local drug store.
“Panic is never helpful in a situation like this,” she said. “These are two cases. We’re watching things closely, and we’re doing what we needed to do to try and contain things over here. And that’s what our jobs are.”
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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.
The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.
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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.
The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.
Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”
From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.
Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.
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Health
CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture
The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.
Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.
The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.
Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.
As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.
This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.
Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.
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Health
Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star
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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.
By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.
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