NOT EFFECTIVE: One sneeze and masks are useless

To be effective, masks would need to be changed twice a day and be disposed of correctly. But this would be too costly and impossible to monitor, according to GP and Daily Express columnist Dr Rosemary Leonard. Fears that the deadly virus had already reached the UK have triggered a surge in sales of surgical masks, seen being worn in Mexico where more than 140 people may have already died from the virus. Passengers flying into London from Mexico were seen leaving ­Heathrow still wearing masks they were given while in the country. Sellers of medical equipment reported a big rise in demand for masks since news broke of the potential for an outbreak in Britain. Individuals and firms were rushing to get their hands on the masks in case “the worst comes to the worst”, industry insiders reported.

But Dr Leonard, who is on the Board of the Health Protection Agency, said there was no provision in the Government’s flu pandemic plans to dish out masks in the event of a breakout here. She said: “Once they are wet, they don’t work and because of respiration they become damp fairly quickly. If you wore one for two or three hours, it would be damp and wouldn’t offer any protection because it becomes more porous and any virus would just seep in. “So one sneeze and they are pretty useless. Apart from the sheer numbers of masks needed to supply ­everyone with a new one every day, getting rid of millions of potentially infectious masks could cause a real public-health hazard.

“Everyone would need a new one twice a day so we would need a ­phenomenal amount. There is no scientific basis that they work and it is false reassurance. “My feeling is that even though they don’t work, the public will probably want them but there is no science behind that. Money could be better spent on anti-viral medication.” However, Matt Parker, a spokesman for justgloves.co.uk which supplies the masks, said there had been a “substantial increase” in demand from businesses and individuals, “primarily of surgical masks but also other sundry items”. “It would appear people are ­preparing themselves in case the worst comes to the worst,” he said.

It could take six months before ­effective vaccines can be ­produced to combat a flu pandemic, an expert warned. The first waves of the potentially deadly virus would be over before people could be protected, said Iain Stephenson, Consultant in ­Infectious Diseases at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. Yet he offered hope of reducing any death toll and suffering by ­immunising people in advance with a so-called ­“pre‑pandemic vaccine”. The problem, he said, was that “we don’t know which strain of influenza will cause the pandemic”. However, in a study by Mr Stephenson and his team, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National ­Academy of Sciences of the USA) he described how patients previously given an ­older bird flu vaccine needed only one dose of a newer vaccine to be protected within seven days.