Scientific research

Are facemasks effective in reducing the transmission of coronaviruses?

HKU SPH researchers including Nancy Leung, Gabriel Leung and Ben Cowling found in this study published in Nature Medicine that surgical face masks have reduced the detection of some respiratory viruses in air exhaled by patients with symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, and runny nose. These include influenza viruses and coronaviruses that cause the common cold. The results from this study suggest that surgical face masks could reduce transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza viruses from symptomatic individuals.

Read more about this paper here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2#Sec4

# control and mitigation measures