Setting PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21330321 with influenza-like illness (ILI) protects effectively contacts from infection. Procedures Design An RCT was performed in fever clinics in six major hospitals in two districts of Beijing, China. The fever clinics are outpatient departments for the assessment and remedy of febrile individuals. The recruitment of participants was began on 18 November 2013 and completed on 20 January 2014. Adults who attended the fever clinic have been screened by hospital staff to identify if they had been eligible for the study. A study staff member approached eligible patients once they presented in the clinic and invited them to participate in the study. Recruited patients meeting the case definition of ILI (see beneath) had been known as index instances, which was the initial case within a possible chain of infection transmission. Eligibility Sufferers aged 18 years and older (index cases) with ILI (defined as fever 38 plus 1 respiratory symptom like cough, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or sneezes) who attended a fever outpatient clinic throughout the study period, had no history of ILI amongst household members in the prior 14 days and who lived with at least two other persons at household had been recruited for the study. ILI was applied as a choice criterion to achieve higher specificity for index instances. Individuals who had been unable or refused to provide consent, had onset of two symptoms 24 hours prior to recruitment, were admitted to hospital, resided inside a household with 2 other individuals, or had other ill household members at house had been excluded in the study. Randomisation Immediately after offering informed consent, 245 index cases were included and randomly allocated to MedChemExpress SB-366791 intervention (mask) and handle (no-mask) arms. A analysis group member (YZ) performed the random allocation sequence applying Microsoft Excel and physicians enrolled the participants randomly to intervention and manage arms. Sufferers had an equal possibility to be inside the either intervention or control arm. One hundred and twenty-three index circumstances and 302 household contacts have been included inside the mask (source manage) arm and 122 index cases and 295 household contacts had been incorporated within the handle arm (figure 1). Circumstances and their household contacts have been assigned with each other as a cluster to either the intervention or control arm. Intervention The mask or no-mask intervention was applied for the index situations and respiratory illness was measured in household contacts. Index cases ( sufferers with ILI) in the intervention arm wore a healthcare mask at household. Index situations have been asked to wear a mask (3M 1817 surgical mask) anytime they had been in the same area as a household member or maybe a visitor to the household. They had been allowed to take away their masks for the duration of meal instances and when asleep. Index situations had been shown the way to put on the mask and instructed to wash their hands when donning and doffing the mask. Index cases had been supplied withFigure 1 Consort diagram of recruitment and follow-up.MacIntyre CR, et al. BMJ Open 2016;six:e012330. doi:ten.1136bmjopen-2016-Open Access masks every day for 7 days (21 masks in total). They had been informed that they could cease wearing a mask once their symptoms resolved. Index circumstances in the control arm didn’t get any intervention. Mask use by other household members was not required and not reported. Outcome measures Respiratory illness outcomes have been measured in household contacts on the index situations. Primary finish points measured in household contacts incorporated: (1) clinical respiratory illness (CRI), defined as two or far more resp.