DIY HOMEMADE MEDICAL FACEMASK
How to Make Medical Face-mask at Home to Protect You Against Infectious Diseases
TABLE OF CONTANTS
What is a face mask?
Types of face masks
How effective are face masks and respirators?
How to make a surgical face mask at home?
How does a mask work?
How to wear a face mask?
How to remove a surgical face mask?
When to wear a mask?
How to wear an N95 mask?
How to prevent infections
Conclusion
W e might feel proud that we are the ruler of this world. We continue to build new structures; we create weapons, means of transport, and other things to make our lives easy. But we always forget that we are not alone in this world. There is an animal world, including land, air and water animals around us and also, a world that is much microscopic, that of the microorganisms. Though we cant see these microorganisms, we cant deny their existence. They do exist and interact with us and other animals at every moment of time.
Such interactions are often ignored because not all microorganisms are harmless and they do not disturb us. But there are some of them which not only disturb us, but if we fall infected to them, they have the power to wipe out whole earth of life.
We should know that these microorganisms can only affect our health if they enter our body. They can enter our body by the common openings, like ears, eyes, mouth, nose and sometimes by skin pores also.
Most of the diseases caused by these pathogens are infectious, i.e., they can be transmitted from one person to another person, from animals to humans, from consuming contaminated food. Such disease causing pathogens can be transmitted by many means, mostly by contaminated air, water and food. Also, if you have a bad habit of eating anything, like junk food from the market, without washing your hands, you should understand that you are welcoming these pathogens to enter your body. Therefore, it is advisable by health experts to not eat open food and wash your hands before eating or preparing food. You should always eat fruits or vegetables after properly washing them.
We can control any infectious disease from spreading by following a few protective instructions like washing our hands, protecting our nose and mouth by wearing a face mask.
What is a face mask?
Face mask is a good simple device that can protect us against any air borne disease. These are loose-fitting masks that can cover your nose and mouth. They have ear loops, tie or bands that help us to fasten them at the back of the head.
As we know that most the diseases can be transferred from one person to another by the droplets of cough, sneezing and sometimes because of the vapour, tiny droplets consisting pathogens existing in the air. A face mask can prevent the number of pathogens that a patient can release while coughing or sneezing and thereby, it can protect others from getting infected.
Also, as human activities have increased the level of toxic gases in the environment, a face mask can protect us from getting any chronic disease like Asthma, Bronchitis caused by inhaling polluted air. Situations like fire causing smoke, pollution from vehicles, firecrackers, can hurt your lungs and a face mask can protect you to some extent.
Face masks also play a good role in many professions to save the workers from the material particles in the air, for example, the construction workers, doctors, etc.
So, using a face mask in our regular lives is always beneficial to protect our body from any kind of air-borne disease.
Though you can always buy a good face mask at chemist shops, but learning to understand how can you make a face mask your own, can be savvy in many cases. It is never time wasting to learn to make new things at home. This may save you money, time to visit the supermarket, and also, in rarest situations like any epidemic, when the face masks may be out of stock, you can create them by your own hands, not only for yourself but also for your beloved ones.
During pandemic situations, people often resort to panic buying, in fear that the required thing may become out of stock. And as face masks are a protective measure recommended by World Health Organization, CDC and many health experts, these can be constantly out of stock at chemist shops, markets, and if you find a piece, you may end up paying a bigger amount due to black marketing.
So, it will be a good idea if you could learn to make your own face mask in cases of emergency. You can also teach others to make it in emergencies. You can make masks and donate to your nearest hospitals and to the people in need as a work of charity.
As we will read this article, we will learn about the types of face masks, that what kind of face mask is safe. We will also know how effective these homemade face masks are. We will know the correct way to wear a face mask and when to wear it. Also, we will learn about how infectious diseases spread and how can we protect ourselves from them using this simple device. Knowing about how these diseases spread will be a great help, as we will know the causes of spread and will be able to follow right precautions to prevent further infection. Also, we can spread the right knowledge among our fellows, we can instruct them if we see them taking wrong steps.
Before we know the necessary procedure how to make a face mask, lets know first what kind of face masks are available in the market and what kind of masks are important to save us from pathogens.
Types of face masks
Surgical Masks: These are the most common masks that you see around, in the news, on the faces of people are mostly surgical face masks. Doctors, dentists and nurses often use this while treating their patients, mainly because these protect them from getting germs. Surgical masks can protect others from a patient suffering from any infectious disease. If any patient is wearing a surgical mask, and he coughs or sneezes, the mask doesnt allow the droplets to escape in the air around. But on the other hand, it doesnt protect you from getting infection if you are healthy. Thats why health experts suggest that a surgical face mask should be worn by patients, not healthy people.
These masks are relatively thin and loose-fitted. The tiny droplets that come out with cough and sneeze (known as bioaerosols) containing the disease causing microbes are even tinier than the pores of this surgical mask and these droplets can seep through the parts of the mask. So, whereas they are helpful in stopping pathogens to escape if a patient wears them, they cant fully protect you if you are healthy and you face a patient with infectious disease who is not wearing it. In this way, surgical face masks are not a way of protection for healthy people.
In a nutshell, these masks are advisable to wear by the sick people to prevent spreading the disease.
Surgical face masks are disposable and are advised to use one time only.
N95 Respirators: Doctors and nurses who treat patients infected with any infectious disease use respirators. These are the same respirators which the construction workers use to protect themselves at work site. These respirators are heavy duty and designed to cover the face fully. They are air tight and can help you protect from getting infected to at least 95%. They can fit over your nose and mouth. CDC claims that these respirators, if worn properly, can filter out about 95% of particles and microorganisms those can use air as medium to travel. However, these respirators are not able to filter vapours, toxic gases and smoke. Yet, they are not full secure as they may allow 5% of particles to pass through which may cause infection. But 5% is a rare chance and though they cant promise a hundred percent protection, but a little precaution is much better than having no protection at all.
