By Sierra Dahe
CNN Staff Writer
(CNN) – Are masks unnecessary for school nurses? Data just released by a task force from the US Centers for Disease Control does not support the idea.
But the data (pdf) found about 300 more children are treated in emergency rooms for symptoms that would normally be relieved by a mask.
Though schools are required to provide the masks for severe allergic reactions, the task force found the increase of emergency room visits in students doesn’t necessarily mean the masks prevent that. The task force’s findings were presented on Thursday at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
The task force studied emergency room visits for school nurse visits between 2005 and 2016. It determined there was an increase in school nurse-assisted emergency room visits, along with an increase in students involved in allergic reactions to mold.
School nurse hospitalizations for a triggeraphylactic reaction increased to 40,000 for 2017 from 34,000. There were 15,800 drug-induced school nurse hospitalizations for 2017, compared with 16,100 for 2014.
Half of the children in the study had never seen a doctor or nurse before an emergency room visit for allergic reactions.
“Overall, changes in clinical practice are occurring and may be the cause of changes in emergency department visits, but these changes may not be associated with increased use of breathing masks,” the researchers wrote.
More intensive testing was associated with a decrease in the increase in emergency room visits from 2007 to 2012, but it has since been replaced by a “longer retention in the emergency department.”
“The impact of patient age, age at onset of exposure, and gender/race/ethnicity are particularly important to consider in the interpretation of the data as multiple epidemiologic diagnoses are identified,” the report says.
Dr. Edd Morris, professor and chairman of the task force, said the data were just released.
“I think the higher ER visits on the upper respiratory was a surprise because I’ve seen a lot of the data and most of the records were individual parents,” he said.
It is difficult to provide statistical data on hospital visits because of the large population of children with asthma in the US, said Morris, who is also an associate professor of medicine at New York Medical College.
“If we say, ‘hey, the masks are working,’ and we collect a data set where those masks are very effective, people are going to go, ‘OK, I can stop having asthma,'” he said. “If we know that masks are not effective — but it’s so clear that they’re effective in a certain portion of the population — then we have to go back and review how we use masks.”
