T-Shirt Times

In the event of a bird flu pandemic — when medical supplies are expected to be in short supply worldwide — a mask made out of an ordinary cotton T-shirt could keep the deadly virus out of people’s lungs, said a local public health physician and two University of Pittsburgh researchers.

"It’s a prototype. We’ve tested it on three people, but we thought it warrants getting the information out there," said David Hostler, a professor in Pitt’s School of Emergency Medicine.

More testing is planned.

World health experts have spent more than three years monitoring a strain of bird flu known as H5N1, which many fear could cause a catastrophic pandemic if it mutates into a form that jumps easily from human to human.