Just a few months ago, no one in India would have imagined people with facemasks on the road, which is increasingly becoming a common sight; and well, one of relief. There have been tens of articles published in the recent days in reputed journals supporting its effectiveness in prevention of spread of novel coronavirus as well as refuting such claims creating a lot of confusion in already scared people in these uncertain times.
But one thing that all the leading experts and scientists agree is that face mask is effective in capturing the droplets containing millions of viruses released in the air following a sneeze or a cough by a patient carrying the virus whether suffering from symptoms such as high fever and cough or an unsuspecting asymptomatic carrier.
The Government of India gave an advisory asking people to wear masks including homemade ones while going out, to fight the invisible enemy of corona pandemic.
Few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the public to use facemasks while going out to prevent its spread and to help others. He reiterated that it does not have to be highly specific facemasks such as N95 masks which needs to be worn by health professionals treating the corona virus infected patients but simple homemade and cloth masks can be effective in eliminating the spread of virus to a large extent. Millions of people followed Government advisory and PM Modi’s appeal and it became a mass movement called out by many organisations.
The Prime Minister’s call to make masks at home and distributing it among the people was taken up by the people from all faiths and political ideologies with lots of enthusiasm. The social media is flooded with people including celebrities making masks and distributing it. Inspired by none other than PM Modi, I made my own little contribution of making a mask from cotton cloth at home and shared the video for public awareness. This noblegesture by millions of Indians will help us all to make up for the deficit of mask in the market as well as helping people to overcome the shortages and the Government can redirect the surgical and other PPE (personal protected equipment) related masks to the frontline workers such as doctors and nurses treating patients with corona virus.
What we know so far about the corona virus is that a significant amount of people infected by it do not suffer from symptoms such as high fever, cough and breathing difficulties but can still spread the virus to others, they may eventually develop the symptoms or may not. By using a face mask, they can prevent the spread of virus through air, this associated with social distancing of two metres will be an effective measure to contain the spread of virus to others.
The homemade cotton masks have many advantages such as they can be sterilised easily at home to be reused again. Meanwhile, the world opinion is changing in favour of mass use of facemask to prevent the spread of corona virus in the community. In some countries such as Japan and South Korea, it is a common culture to sight people wearing masks while going out especially during the flu season to limit its community spread.
One thing is very clear about the corona virus is that the virus droplets containing millions of them linger on for days in the air; so a facemask will surely protect people from getting it. However it is of paramount importance that the facemasks should be properly cleaned everyday while taking care of handling it properly. And people should follow the principle of one facemask for one person and it should never be shared even among the family members.
Coronavirus global pandemic has come as a disastrous surprise for everyone with over 16 lakhs of people getting infected from it and over 1 lakh deaths and numbers are increasing as we speak and scientists all over the world are still trying to figure out its complete course and treatment with only limited success so far. The vaccines and the cure are being worked upon and it might take many months to get a cure or a vaccine. We have no other option other than following the age-old golden advice of “prevention is better than cure”. My sincere appeal to all is to follow Government ’s advisory during the lockdown, maintain social distancing and stay at home to save lives.
(Dr Biswal is a BJP Mahila Morcha State leader)