Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 16;228(4):479-486. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad167.
Face masks have been critical in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but supplies were sometimes limited and disposable masks contribute greatly to environmental waste. Studies suggest that filtration capacity is retained with repeated use, and surveys indicate many people reuse surgical masks. However, the impact of mask reuse on the host is understudied.
We applied 16S rRNA gene sequencing to investigate the bacterial microbiome of the facial skin and oropharynx of individuals randomized to wearing fresh surgical masks daily versus masks reused for 1 week.
Compared to daily fresh masks, reuse was associated with increased richness (number of taxa) of the skin microbiome and trend towards greater diversity, but no difference in the oropharyngeal microbiome. Used masks had either skin-dominant or oropharynx-dominant bacterial sequences, and reused masks had >100-fold higher bacterial content but no change in composition compared to those used for 1 day.
One week of mask reuse increased the number of low-abundance taxa on the face but did not impact the upper respiratory microbiome. Thus, face mask reuse has little impact on the host microbiome, although whether minor changes to the skin microbiome might relate to reported skin sequelae of masking (maskne) remains to be determined.
口罩在 2019 冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间至关重要，但供应有时有限，一次性口罩对环境造成了极大的浪费。研究表明，口罩经过重复使用仍能保持过滤能力，调查显示许多人会重复使用医用外科口罩。然而，口罩重复使用对宿主的影响尚未得到充分研究。
我们应用 16S rRNA 基因测序技术，调查了随机分配每日佩戴新的医用外科口罩或重复使用一周口罩的个体的面部皮肤和口咽部位的细菌微生物组。
与每日使用新口罩相比，重复使用与皮肤微生物组的丰富度（分类单元数量）增加和多样性增加趋势相关，但口咽微生物组无差异。使用过的口罩具有皮肤优势或口咽优势的细菌序列，重复使用的口罩的细菌含量比使用 1 天的口罩高 100 倍以上，但组成没有变化。
口罩重复使用一周增加了面部低丰度分类单元的数量，但对口咽微生物组没有影响。因此，口罩重复使用对宿主微生物组的影响很小，尽管皮肤微生物组的微小变化是否与报告的口罩相关的皮肤后遗症（maskne）有关，仍有待确定。
