The government has recommended people use masks as a way of reducing the spread of infection via droplets from coughs and sneezes. -- PHOTO: AP
TOKYO - IT WAS everywhere in western Japan on Tuesday and showing signs of spreading to heavily populated Tokyo - not the new H1N1 flu virus, but rather the face masks people are wearing to prevent catching it.
Disposable masks are recommended by the government for those who suspect they have been infected with the new strain of flu, but many members of the public are wearing them in an effort to avoid getting infected themselves - although experts say cheap masks offer little protection.
Senior Liberal Democratic Party official Hiroyuki Hosoda appeared at a news conference in a mask, though he peeled it off before speaking to reporters. Domestic media showed students on a guided tour of parliament wearing white masks and customers lining up outside stores to stock up on them.
Long popular with Japanese who want to avoid passing on a cold or breathing in allergenic pollen, masks have become an essential accessory in the western areas of Osaka and Hyogo prefecture, where 172 people have been infected.
Put on a mask Some businesses are ordering their employees, especially those who deal face-to-face with clients, to wear masks. Everyone entering Japan's upper house of parliament, including lawmakers, was being asked to put on a mask, a spokesman said.
Avex Group Holdings, a music company that has contracts with star singers such as Ayumi Hamazaki, is asking people to wear masks at planned concerts in Osaka and Hyogo in the coming week, if they have been coughing or sneezing. 'I pick up passengers from the station,' one taxi driver told broadcaster TBS. 'It's a bit frightening in this enclosed space - they might be infected without having developed a fever yet.'
The government has recommended people use masks as a way of reducing the spread of infection via droplets from coughs and sneezes, but puts the onus on those who are already infected. 'If you start to cough or sneeze, please use a mask,' reads an advice section on the Health Ministry's website. 'If someone in your family or at your workplace is coughing without a mask on, please urge them to wear one.'
An official at the ministry emphasised the government was only recommending those with symptoms wear masks.
'Unless you are in a very crowded place, masks are not going to help much with prevention,' he said. 'We are not saying that people should always wear a mask when they go out, although it might help to wear one on a rush-hour train. We are certainly not saying that you'll be safe if you just put on a mask.'
But Nobuhiko Okabe, the director of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center at the National Institute of Infectious Disease, told reporters on Tuesday there was a possibility that wearing a mask would help prevent the virus entering the body. -- REUTERS
