Breaking

Coronavirus: Call for clear face masks to be 'the norm' - BBC News
May 26, 2020 1 min, 24 secs

But for people who are deaf or have hearing loss, masks can prevent them understanding anything at all.

It is a problem she shares with the some 466 million people around the world who, according to the World Health Organization, have disabling hearing loss.

Standard face masks, which have become widespread as countries try to stop the spread of coronavirus, muffle words and obscure the mouth.

Main dans la Main (Hand in Hand), an association which supports deaf and hearing impaired people in Chevrières, northern France, is among the organisations around the world that have created a mask with a transparent window.

"The basic aim of these transparent masks is to allow deaf and hearing impaired people to read the lips of someone speaking to them," Kelly told the BBC.

There is just one company in the US that has secured Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to make clear masks for clinical use.

At the moment they are being reserved for staff to wear when they are speaking to patients with hearing loss, or vice versa.

Fizz Izagaren, a paediatric registrar at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey in the UK who is also deaf, says standard masks prevent her from taking patients' histories verbally.

An intensive care nurse working in London, who is profoundly deaf, told the BBC she had one experience where a patient, who also had hearing loss, was not able to understand her or her colleagues when they were explaining a procedure?

It is not just people with hearing loss who could benefit, she says

Experts suggest that other professions such as taxi drivers or even teachers may find clear masks useful as the coronavirus crisis continues

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED