There is currently concern about the possibility of an impending emerging influenza pandemic. In the event of such, a limited number of interventions would be available to reduce and control the spread of the disease and thus the resulting morbidity and mortality [2, 3] . Antiviral drugs could be used subject to availability, although their effectiveness against the novel pandemic strain is uncertain and resistance could develop quickly with large-scale use. Furthermore a vaccine specific to the pandemic strain would take optimistically, given current technology and production capacity, at least 6 months to develop and mass produce [4] . In addition to vaccination and targeted antiviral prophylaxis, other population-level social distancing measures such as school and workplace closures and travel restrictions are likely to be somewhat effective in reducing influenza transmission in the community [5, 6] , but implementation on a prolonged basis and with repeated waves of the pandemic could be difficult. Household-based quarantine and isolation will likely be effective in mitigating the impact of a pandemic [5] [6] [7] . There is however considerable uncertainty about the efficacy of some non-pharmaceutical interventions at the personal level including face masks and hand hygiene. Our proposed study, to assess the efficacy of masks and hand-hygiene for influenza control, is a direct response to the World Health Organization's recent call for urgent research on the efficacy of nonpharmaceutical public health interventions [3] .