The Martlet

Take heed fashionistas — no longer will you need to suffer as both pandemic and fashion victims. A remedy is available in the form of designer surgical masks.

Flavours of colourful, ironic imagery have recently replaced the sterile canvas of the traditional protective mask, making preventing the flu just another way to add style to your wardrobe.

Websites such as samiraboon.com and digobrands.com are new hotbeds for the preventative products, allowing buyers to bring out their fierceness with ferocious tiger jaws, or purchase a lacey number to heat up the bedroom.

Don’t let the H1N1 flu virus put a damper on wedding plans — now you can walk down the aisle in a classic ivory mask, with a matching veil.

During the 2002 SARS outbreak, the masks were widely used in Japan as a courtesy to other members of the public. Many felt this would help to prevent the spread of the virus.

However, contrary to this belief, the Public Health Agency of Canada website says that masks are not effective in preventing transmission of the flu in the general public.

“People often use masks incorrectly, or contaminate themselves when putting masks on and taking them off, which could actually increase the risk of infection,” says the agency’s website. “The exception is people who are ill with H1N1 flu virus or people who are exhibiting flu-like symptoms. In order to protect those in close contact, like doctors, nurses and caregivers at home, these people may be asked to wear a face mask.”

Despite the advice that masks are only practical in the home or hospital, designers are moving towards branding these face coverings and making them into fashion statements.

Many of the masks are priced between $5 and $15 USD. DIGO, the agency for “social change,” blends fashion, function and social awareness by donating all of the hefty $100 USD price tags for their products to charity. Their masks come with a certificate of authenticity and the assurance that you have purchased a commemorative piece of fashion and medical history.

The trend has yet to emerge on the UVic campus, and health services nurses were unavailable for comment on the masks.

Meanwhile, the H1N1 virus itself has definitely unveiled its latest fall line of symptoms.