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thesundaytimes May 3, 2009

Why give masks a miss?

Singaporeans do not like to wear masks when they are sick because they do not want to stand out
Nur Shakylla Saifudin ven before the first confirmed case of Influenza A (H1N1) in Hong Kong on Friday, the residents there took to wearing masks in public. After Sars killed 299 people in the city in 2003, the residents in Hong Kong are more hygiene conscious. Why dont people do the same here? It has been more than a week since the flu outbreak in Mexico but masks are still a rare sight in public places. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has said he would like Singaporeans to be like the Japanese, who regularly wear masks in public when they are sick to prevent spreading their illness. After all, experts such as Associate Professor Helen Oh, senior consultant of infectious diseases at Changi General Hospital, says: Used correctly, surgical masks can prevent the wearer from spreading respiratory droplets. But most Singaporeans interviewed say they will not wear a mask when they are sick. The main reason? They do not want to stick out like a sore thumb in public. Undergraduate Lau Sein Teng, 19, says: It looks weird to wear a

mask. Everyone will stare at you. Manager Jennifer Lam, 26, says: It is not the culture here to be so conscientious about wearing masks. Professor Philip Eng, consultant respiratory physician at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, agrees: Singaporeans are conscious about their appearances. Also, there is this paranoid thinking that you should stay away from someone wearing a mask when in fact that person has done a gracious act. Before the current heightened hygiene awareness, even medical professionals such as general practitioners do not normally wear masks at work. Dr Wong Weng Hong, 45, managing director of Healthway Medical Group, explains: It is psychological. Some patients feel uncomfortable when a doctor is wearing a mask as it seems unfriendly or non-engaging. Others fear that they may contract an infectious disease when they see doctors and nurses wearing masks, because they may think that an extremely ill person is in the clinic at the time. He says the doctors and nurses at Healthways chain of clinics are all wearing masks. But with Hong Kong becoming the first country in Asia to have a confirmed H1N1 case, the mask message may start to get through to the community. As housewife Rohani Mohd Noor, 55, puts it, it is ones social social responsibility to wear a mask when ill. I do not want to get other people sick, she says. nurshakn@sph.com.sg Additional reporting by Valerie Wang
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS

Doctors say wearing a surgical mask prevents a sick person from spreading respiratory droplets.

Take cover
What: Paper (top) and cotton (below) surgical masks Price: $3.95 for 100 pieces (one-ply paper mask), $4.95 for 100 pieces (two-ply paper mask), $5.50 for 10 pieces (three-ply cotton mask) How effective: Doctors say these help prevent droplets or secretions from being dispersed into the air and infecting other people in the area. But they will not protect the user from breathing in contaminated air. When to change: After eight hours of use or when they are damp or saturated due to condensation. They cannot be reused.

What: N95 respirator mask Price: $3.20 per piece How effective: Helps prevent user from breathing in contaminated air when worn correctly. It blocks out 95 per cent of small particles. When to change: After eight hours of use or when it is damp or saturated due to condensation. It cannot be reused.