Background:

COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world and studies on the development of new drugs and vaccines are still in progress. Therefore, the use of personal protective equipment, hand washing and social distancing, to date are the main defense measures against infection.

Objective:

to describe the current evidence on the effectiveness of the use of cloth masks compared to surgical masks and respirators, as well as the efficacy of community use of masks to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods:

a literature review and analysis of the information was carried out using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) descriptors linked to free terms: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Personal Protective Equipment, Masks, Efficacy, Efficiency, Population. Based on the information obtained, a bibliographic review of a total of 1,788 articles published in the MEDLINE / PubMed, SciELO and LILACS databases was carried out. Without language restrictions, duplicates and those that did not meet the objective of the study were eliminated from the study, selecting 52 articles for the present review.

Results:

there is much evidence about the benefit of the continuous and massive use of masks as a tool to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases in the community. Cloth masks, if they follow the recommendations for their proper manufacture, offer good protection and their performance is comparable to that of surgical masks in the community. Respirators should be reserved for healthcare personnel in the nosocomial setting as they offer appropriate protection in closed environments with a high viral load.

Conclusions:

the massive use of masks can complement the containment and prevention strategies against infectious diseases of respiratory origin including COVID-19. However, more specific studies are needed on the subject to help better understand its performance in the field.

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