The study includes 342,000 people who were followed for six months in about 600 villages in densely populated Bangladesh, writes the Washington Post. In half of the villages, campaigns were carried out between November 2020 and April 2021 to wear mouth guards. The call concerned schools, workplaces, shopping malls, religious sites and other indoor environments. People were offered free mouth protection and the campaign was supported by leading figures in the villages.
The result was that many more villagers used mouth guards. The share tripled from 13.3 percent to 42.3 percent. At the same time, the spread of infection decreased by 9.3 per cent among the adult population in the villages where interventions in favor of oral protection were carried out.
“This should put an end to all kinds of scientific debates about whether or not mouthwashes are effective,” said Jason Abaluck, a professor at Yale University. till Washington Post. He calls the result “a nail in the coffin” for the arguments against mouth protection.
– Vaccination against covid-19 in Bangladesh.
Photo: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP
Behind the controlled study, which will be published in the scientific journal Science, is an international group of researchers from Yale and Stanford, among others, and the Bangladeshi organization Green Voice.
The World Health Organization WHO has advocated the use of mouth guards during the pandemic. In Sweden, the Swedish Public Health Agency considers that a broad and general use of mouth guards in society is not justified.
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