Face masks and respirators are commonly used to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases that spread by respiratory droplets and aerosols. However, there is still uncertainty about the protective effect of the different types of masks against virus containing aerosols. To determine the as-worn bioaerosol protection efficacy of different face coverings and estimate the possible protective function against airborne diseases, we challenged different respirators and medical masks on a standardized dummy head with a bioaerosol containing MS2 bacteriophages as virus surrogates. In our experiments, FFP2 respirators showed the highest filtration efficacy 94 ± 4 (SD) % followed by medical masks 93 ± 3 (SD) % and KN95 respirators 90 ± 7 (SD) %. Nevertheless, we found no statistically significant difference between respirators and medical masks in terms of provided protection against infective aerosols. Our findings indicate that both respirators and medical masks provide a high as-worn bioaerosol protection efficacy against virus containing aerosols, and therefore, a very high protection against airborne diseases. Considering the higher comfort, better availability, and lower price of medical masks in contrast to respirators, it is recommendable to use medical face masks especially in low risk situations and in general public.

中文翻译：

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针对感染性气溶胶的高水平生物气溶胶防护：医用口罩与呼吸器的比较

口罩和呼吸器通常用于防止通过呼吸道飞沫和气溶胶传播的传染病的传播。但是，不同类型的口罩对含病毒气溶胶的防护效果仍存在不确定性。为了确定不同面罩的生物气溶胶防护效果并估计对空气传播疾病的可能保护功能，我们用含有 MS2 噬菌体作为病毒替代物的生物气溶胶对标准化假人头上的不同呼吸器和医用口罩进行了挑战。在我们的实验中，FFP2 口罩的过滤效率最高，为 94 ± 4 (SD) %，其次是医用口罩 93 ± 3 (SD) %，KN95 口罩为 90 ± 7 (SD) %。尽管如此，我们发现在提供对传染性气溶胶的保护方面，呼吸器和医用口罩之间没有统计学上的显着差异。我们的研究结果表明，呼吸器和医用口罩都提供了对含有病毒的气溶胶的高佩戴生物气溶胶保护功效，因此对空气传播疾病具有非常高的保护作用。考虑到医用口罩与呼吸器相比具有更高的舒适性、更好的可用性和更低的价格，建议使用医用口罩，尤其是在低风险情况下和一般公众中。