Wear a mask to avoid transmitting the Sars-CoV-2 virus. We all picked up this habit during the height of the pandemic, and some have stuck with it ever since, especially when they show symptoms suggestive of a respiratory infection.
And they are right: like Covid, the main winter diseases are caused by respiratory viruses “responsible for colds, nasopharyngitis, seasonal flu, bronchitis and bronchiolitis in children”details Public Health France.
Droplets and surfaces
These viruses are transmitted “via the droplets of respiratory secretions, or in the form of aerosols formed during sneezing, which can project microdroplets capable of persisting in the atmosphere and penetrating deep into the respiratory tract”, indicates the Catholic University of Louvain. Hence the interest of wearing a mask when you are infected with one of these viruses.
But also when you suffer from acute viral gastroenteritis, which is part of the rotavirus family. Like respiratory viruses, it can be transmitted by “direct contact of the hands of an infected person with another person (for example by shaking hands) or by contact with objects (toys, comforters, pacifiers, elevator buttons, cutlery, etc.) contaminated with a sick person “.
Barrier measures and vaccination
This is why, in addition to wearing a mask, it is recommended to adopt the other now well-known barrier measures: “wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap (…), sneeze and cough into paper tissues (which must be thrown away) or in the crook of your arm, completely covering your mouth and nose”recalls the Merck Manual, or even adopting social distancing measures.
It is also useful, in prevention, to be vaccinated when possible: against the flu of course, but also against gastroenteritis. Since June 2022, “Infant rotavirus vaccination is recommended for all infants from 6 weeks of age”recalls the government site Vaccination-info-service.
