Bird Flu: Science and Policy

[DewDiligence]

Will Masks Stop Bird Flu? Students Experiment

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070130/ts_nm/birdflu_students_dc_2

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By Maggie Fox
Jan 30, 6:38 PM ET

Can wearing a face mask and regularly cleaning hands stop the spread of deadly bird flu? Students at the University of Michigan started a living experiment on Tuesday to find out.

They are using the peak of influenza season to see if simple cotton masks and little bottles of hand sanitizer will protect them.

Health experts fear the H5N1 avian influenza virus might mutate any moment and start a pandemic -- a global epidemic that could kill millions. If not H5N1, some other new virus could do the same, world health officials agree.

They also agree there is no easy way to stop one. Viruses are very difficult to treat with drugs, unlike bacteria, which can usually be stopped with antibiotics.

Antivirals exist to treat flu, but are in limited supply. Vaccines take time to make, and there is very limited capacity to produce them. So low-tech measures will be the first line of defense against any rapidly spreading new disease.

While influenza is hardly new, doctors do not fully understand or agree on how it is spread.

The virus is carried in droplets that can be coughed or sneezed, and a great deal of evidence shows it can survive in little droplets on surfaces, to be picked up with an errant finger and transferred to nose or mouth.

More than 2,000 students living in University of Michigan dormitories will wear masks and use hand sanitizer to see if they develop lower rates of influenza than students not using such protections.

The dense and intimate living conditions of college life are perfect for such an experiment, says Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the university who is leading the study. Students there share sleeping quarters, bathrooms, hallways and dining areas.

"There is some anecdotal evidence from prior pandemic outbreaks that masks may have helped, but no firm data," Monto said in a statement.

Monto's team has begun handing out 800 cases of alcohol-based hand sanitizer in small bottles for students to carry, and larger pump bottles for their rooms. They will also distribute cotton masks held on by rubber bands over the ears.

Students in one group will use hand sanitizer and wear simple cotton surgical masks. Another group will use only the masks and a third group will get no extra protections. They will use the products as soon as influenza is detected and reported among students.

The researchers will simply watch and see if the groups get influenza and related illnesses at different rates. The U.S. flu season generally starts in October and lasts through March, peaking in February.

"It's going to be a group effort, that's for sure," said Allison Aiello, an assistant professor of epidemiology.

The H5N1 flu remains mainly a disease of birds, but it has infected 270 people since 2003 and killed 164 of them. If it begins to spread as easily from person to person as seasonal flu, there will be no stopping a pandemic, experts say.
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