Table 3 Results of the comparative BFE (%) test executed using S. aureus and S. epidermidis.

From: Staphylococcus epidermidis is a safer surrogate of Staphylococcus aureus in testing bacterial filtration efficiency of face masks

Mask model ID

BFE (%), mean ± SD

BFE difference, value (95% CI)

S. aureus

S. epidermidis

B

89.15 ± 2.74

89.47 ± 1.85

0.32 (−1.88 to 2.52)

C

99.86 ± 0.06

99.96 ± 0.06

0.1 (−2.10 to 2.30)

D

99.99 ± 0.02

99.95 ± 0.03

−0.04 (−2.24 to 2.16)

  1. Differences of BFE values and their confidence intervals (CI) are also reported.
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