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Australian researchers retract N95 recommendation for HCWs treating patients with respiratory illness
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Findings indicating that the use of N95 masks may be more beneficial than alternatives for health care workers to protect themselves against respiratory illness have been retracted.
In move that surprised many, the team of Australian researchers who conducted the study also retracted their findings and their recommendations for HCWs to use N95 masks. The retraction was made during the 47th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
The initial findings involved 1,936 front line health care workers in 24 hospitals in Beijing, China. In a presentation at the 49th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco in September, Raina McIntyre, PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said that N95 masks were significantly more effective than surgical masks in preventing a host of respiratory and influenza-like illnesses.
Those findings are no longer significant, according to Holly Seale, PhD, who is also of the University of New South Wales and was an investigator on the study.
The retraction prompted a flood of inquiries from conference attendees and commentary from a cross-section of infectious diseases specialists, including Infectious Disease News Chief Medical Editor Theodore C. Eickhoff, MD.
In a previous editorial, Eickhoff expressed concern that the findings from the study led CDC to recommend N95 masks for health care workers treating patients with respiratory illness and influenza-like illness, including influenza A (H1N1). Eickhoff, like many others, addressed the fact that the science behind the recommendation may have been insufficient and/or faulty. The recent retraction may have validated this opinion.
Beyond the science, the cost and lack of availability of N95 masks made it difficult for many hospitals to adhere to the recommendation.
CDC has not yet changed the recommendation in the wake of the retraction. Many infectious disease specialists now question how this development will impact CDC recommendations as the influenza season approaches.