You are a nurse in a public health unit working to evaluate recommendations for effective policy that aim to control the community spread of COVID-19. You are asked to provide a brief report that...

“ IN ADULTS, IS WEARING A MASK EFFECTIVE FOR PREVENTING HUMAN - TO - HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF AIRBORNE ILLNESSES ? ”
INTRODUCTION :
The involvement of microorganism- containing aerosols and droplets emission in various expiratory activities such as coughing, sneezing, talking (or)
eathing results in the transmission of infectious respiratory diseases. The transmission can also occur through physical contact after the deposition of the emitted aerosols and droplets on surfaces, re- aerosolization that can happen after deposition, direct deposition of these on mucosal surfaces by touching eyes, mouth etc., (or) even by directly inhaling the virus- laden aerosols (Asadi, 2020). The out
eak of new ai
orne diseases and their wide spread reaching the community level is a challenge for both the community as well as the physician.
Now-a-days the corona virus disease 2019 (or COVID-19 is the most discussed topic around the globe (Vo, 2020). The role and spatial scale of the different modes of transmission, that includes droplet spray, aerosol inhalation (or) contact, still remains uncertain for many respiratory tract infections. But the initial expiratory aerosol (or) droplet emission stem the ai
orne transmission (Asadi, 2020). These respiratory droplets are generated through the cough (or) sneeze of an infected person. The people who are in close contact with the person who has some respiratory symptoms are at a higher risk to be exposed to the infective respiratory droplets and get infected themselves (WHO, 2020).
The use of personal respiratory protective methods will help in preventing the transmission to an extend (Vo, 2020) and mitigate the disease (Asadi, 2020). The major steps are hand-washing techniques and wearing masks. The practice of wearing a mask will not only protect the wearer but also the people who are in close contact with them. Evidences have shown that masks provide significant protection to the wearer, provided proper mask fitting techniques are followed (Asadi, 2020). But there is also few gaps in confirming about the prevention of the ai
orne illnesses by wearing masks (medical masks, cloth masks, surgical masks and N95 respirators) (Vo, 2020). But it is crucial to know the efficacy of face coverings and wearing masks in reducing the aerosols and droplets transmission from various expiratory activities (Asadi, 2020). Hence, this article focuses on discussing the effectiveness of wearing masks in preventing human - to - human transmission of ai
orne illnesses.
SEARCH STRATEGY :
The scholarly articles were taken for providing evidence on the research question. These articles are from the recognized journals and publications such as PubMed, The Eurasian Journal of Medicine, World Health Organization (WHO), BMJ etc. The articles were choosen by following the protocols of Evidence Based Practice which included asking the research question, acquiring information on it, appraising the...