T-shirt mask could help in flu pandemic -experts

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< id=CurrentSize = value=13 name=CurrentSize> By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - The world may be unprepared for a bird flu pandemic, but U.S. researchers said on Wednesday they had come up with one low-tech answer to widespread shortages of medical equipment -- a mask made out of a T-shirt.

Their mask fit comfortably over the face and appeared to filter out potentially infectious particles, the team at the University of Pittsburgh said.

"A simple, locally made, washable mask may be a solution if commercial masks are not available," Virginia Dato, David Hostler and Michael Hahn wrote in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Experts say a pandemic of some kind of influenza is inevitable and that the H5N1 avian flu virus looks closer than any other virus to causing such a global wave of disease.

The H5N1 virus almost exclusively infects birds but it has killed 128 people and has infected at least 225.

The World Health Organization says there is a global shortage of medical equipment such as masks, gloves and gowns as well as of antiviral drugs and other supplies, especially in poor countries.

One key piece of protection is an N95 respirator -- a fitted, woven cone of paper that can be pressed tightly over the nose and mouth to filter out fine particles that can carry germs or toxins.

Dato's team tried to replicate these factors.

A cotton T-shirt "was boiled for 10 minutes and air-dried to maximize shrinkage and sterilize the material in a manner available in developing countries," they wrote.

They cut it into nine pieces and fashioned a mask that had several layers of cotton over the nose and mouth and tied behind the head.

Such a mask is a poor defense against influenza, except perhaps when used by trained health care workers, Dato said in a telephone interview.

"If it's really needed, you actually have the mask on and you are next to somebody who has influenza, then that mask is catching influenza droplets. So then when you are done with it, it is really contaminated," she said.

"It has to be appropriately washed, cleaned maybe with some bleach. It is somewhat like a dirty diaper (but) at least a dirty diaper that has poop in it, you can see that it is contaminated and you don't put it in your pocketbook."

It would be dangerous to put such a mask on a person sick with influenza, because they are already struggling to breathe and the mask could make it worse.

Another danger is "being overconfident -- putting on a mask and thinking you are invincible," added Dato.