Face Mask as a Tool to Prevent the Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Importance and Challenges

Context: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in China in December 2019 and rapidly became a global epidemic. Respiratory droplets are the main transmission route, and no approved drugs or vaccines have been reported so far. Therefore, prevention is considered essential to the control of this pandemic. Masks are personal protective equipment, which play a key role in the prevention process. The World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have emphasized on the use of masks by healthcare providers, patients, and caregivers. Evidence Acquisition: This review study was conducted by searching in Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and WHO library databases using specific search terms. Only the articles and other secondary sources published in English were selected and reviewed. Results: 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is smaller than the pore size of all types of available masks. In addition, the issue of limited hospital resources (e.g., masks during pandemics) requires special attention, while the produced mask garbage during the pandemic is another crucial issue. Efforts have been made to address these three critical challenges. Conclusions: We reviewed various types of masks and investigated the ability of each to prevent COVID-19, as well as the solutions for the issues associated with using the masks that provide insufficient protection against the 2019-nCoV, mask shortage, and mask garbage. Despite the deficient protective power of the available masks, these tools could delay the progression of COVID-19 effectively owing to mask flow resistance and virus spread via droplets.