Bacteria and Virus Filtration

Bacteria Filtration Efficiencies of Filtering Devices

The table below shows filtration efficiencies of Staphylococcus epidermidis suspended in a phosphate buffered saline and inoculated by fine spray aerosolization into the top of a manikin test chamber.

Filtration Device	Total CFUs	% Reduction from Control
No mask, control	196	NA
ION Gaiter	1	99.5
N95 Perfect seal	9	95.4
N95 Practical fit	26	86.7
Surgical Mask	150	23.5

 Virus filtration

The ION Gaiter captured 99.4% compared to 92.7% for a “Practical fit” N95. Since virus evading filtration has the potential to cause infection, a more direct way to calculate efficiency is to compare what gets through a filter. For example, the N95 failed to filter 7.3% of the virus while the ION Gaiter failed to filter 0.6%. Analyzing data in this way, the ION Gaiter provided a 12.2-fold reduction in unfiltered virus compared to the N95 (7.3%/0.6%=12.2).