Enhanced Medical and Community Face Masks with Antimicrobial Properties: A Systematic Review

• Main Authors: Katy Stokes, Roberto Peltrini, Umberto Bracale, Marcella Trombetta, Leandro Pecchia, Francesco Basoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical Medicine
• Subjects: antimicrobial; personal protective equipment; face masks; filtering facepiece respirator; COVID-19; pandemic
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/10/18/4066

Face masks help to limit transmission of infectious diseases entering through the nose and mouth. Beyond reprocessing and decontamination, antimicrobial treatments could extend the lifetime of face masks whilst also further reducing the chance of disease transmission. Here, we review the efficacy of treatments pertaining antimicrobial properties to medical face masks, filtering facepiece respirators and non-medical face masks. Searching databases identified 2113 studies after de-duplication. A total of 17 relevant studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. Risk of bias was found to be moderate or low in all cases. Sixteen articles demonstrated success in avoiding proliferation (if not elimination) of viruses and/or bacteria. In terms of methodology, no two articles employed identical approaches to efficacy testing. Our findings highlight that antimicrobial treatment is a promising route to extending the life and improving the safety of face masks. In order to reach significant achievements, shared and precise methodology and reporting is needed.