KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Teresa Edwards has Purell dispensers
positioned all through her house in Overland Park, Kan. She makes her two young
sons slather on the gel whenever they get home from school.
She would have made them wear the face masks she bought, if
the things had fit properly. Now she’s shopping for child-size versions.
“I was and I still am freaked out by swine flu,”
Edwards said.
So are millions of other worried people.
They’re buying up face masks and sanitizing hand gels,
hoping to stave off the H1N1 flu virus.
Demand from consumers and health care providers is creating
nationwide shortages of these products and raising concerns that people may be
putting too much faith in some flu countermeasures.
The Food and Drug Administration recently warned consumers
to use extreme care when buying any products online that claim to prevent or
treat swine flu.
“I think a lot of people want to feel like they’re
doing something to protect their family and themselves. It may give them a
false sense of security,” said Shawn Mueller, infection prevention and
control manager at University of Kansas Hospital.
She recommends such basic measures as covering coughs and
sneezes, washing hands frequently and staying home when you’re ill.
Hand sanitizers are a good bet, Mueller said. They can kill
flu viruses and make a good substitute for hand washing.
But the kinds of masks often used by the general public are
only effective at stopping the sneezes of someone who is already sick. They are
unlikely to keep people wearing them from catching the flu, she said.
“A normal, walking-around human doesn’t need one,”
Mueller said.
Effective or not, swine flu avoidance measures have spread
as rapidly as the virus.
Drugstores have moved their mask displays to prominent
end-of-the-aisle positions.
Discount stores such as Target are advertising masks and
hand sanitizers among their “flu essentials.”
Hospitals are placing hand gel dispensers in their lobbies
for visitors who come to see vulnerable patients. Doctors are handing out masks
in waiting rooms.
The U.S. Army has even started issuing hand gel to new
recruits in basic training, olive-drab bottles that fit neatly into a shoulder
pocket.
Edwards’ younger son, Anthony, 6, has asthma and allergies
that make him vulnerable to flu and other respiratory infections.
“Any little virus he gets turns into pneumonia
overnight,” she said.
So Anthony and his older brother, Jeramieh, 9, are getting a
lot of experience with hand gel dispensers.
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Edwards went shopping for masks after eight of Jeramieh’s
classmates were out sick recently.
“If he picks up anything, he’ll bring it home to
Anthony. It’s too much of a risk,” she said.
Hand sanitizer sales have been tracking upward along with
the nation’s growing anxiety about swine flu.
People bought more than $129 million worth in the year
ending Oct. 4. That is 29 percent more than the year before, according to
Information Resources Inc., a Chicago market research firm that follows most
mass merchandise outlets, except Wal-Mart.
Recently, sales have skyrocketed. In September alone,
spending on hand sanitizers was 177 percent higher than a year earlier.
That is putting a strain on supply.
“Despite making huge investments to increase our
capacity — running our plants 24/7 and increasing our staff — we are unable to
keep up with the unprecedented demand,” Mark Lerner, the president of Gojo
Industries, which manufactures Purell for hospitals and other institutions,
said in a recent statement.
Lerner warned against stockpiling the gel: “Stockpiling
could cause an actual shortage, which, in turn, could threaten public
health.”
Some kinds of masks also are in short supply.
It is still possible to get surgical masks, the kind of
lightweight, inexpensive masks many people buy.
If you have the flu, wearing one of these masks will help
protect your family from your coughs and sneezes.
Doctors’ offices and emergency rooms may ask you to put one
on if you arrive with flu symptoms.
“If I were ill and the doctor suspects I have
influenza, that would be an appropriate time for me to wear a mask,” said
Mueller of KU Hospital. “It’s to protect others from me.”
But these masks generally are too porous and their edges too
leaky to offer real protection against catching the flu.
The kind of mask that does keep out the flu is called a
respirator and has a filtering rating of N95 from the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health.
These disposable masks are an important protection for
health care providers who deal every day with lots of patients with infectious
diseases.
But manufacturers haven’t been able to make them fast enough
to keep up with demand, said J.P. Sankpill, president of U.S. Safety, a Lenexa,
Kan.-based manufacturer and supplier of protective equipment.
Sankpill’s factory in Lenexa makes air purifying respirators
with replaceable filters. They afford the same protection as disposable
respirators but are designed for repeated use. U.S. Safety also sells regular
N95 respirators from other manufacturers.
“As it stands right now, there are lots of hospitals
running out or that have run out of N95 respirators,” Sankpill said.
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The federal government had estimated in 2007 that billions
more of these disposable masks would be needed during a pandemic, but it hasn’t
done anything to help manufacturers build up their production capacity,
Sankpill said.
“This has been a known issue for two years at least,
and for now it’s too late (to increase the supply),” he said.
For the average person, N95 respirators may be protective
overkill.
They’re more expensive than surgical masks and can be
unpleasant to wear for any length of time.
“Some folks have been wearing them all day or whenever
they go out, and they’re uncomfortable and they get hot,” Mueller said.
To be effective, an N95 respirator has to be fitted properly
so it is sealed on the face. That’s not a job for amateurs.
When hospital workers are issued respirators, they go through
a “fit test” that can take 20 minutes or longer.
After a worker dons the respirator, a hood is placed over
his or her head. Chemicals with strong sweet or bitter tastes are squirted
under the hood.
If the worker can detect the chemicals, it means the respirator
isn’t well sealed.
“The odds of the general public being fit-tested are
slim to none,” Sankpill said.
Health care providers can make better use of the limited
supplies of respirators, he said.
“I’m not going to tell you not to get N95 respirators.
You’re trying to protect your family,” Sankpill said.
“All I’m saying is, don’t get any more than you need,
and if you get them, use them.”
Edwards’ sons definitely will use any respirator masks she
gets for them.
“If I found masks that work, I would have them wear
them in public and in school,” she said.
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What to look for
Sanitizing hand gel: The gel should be at least 62 percent
alcohol to be effective killing germs.
Face masks: Surgical masks will protect others from your
coughs and sneezes. Properly fitted N95-rated respirator masks will protect you
from flu viruses.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
