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Visors are used by health and medical staff in Stockholm and Västra Götaland, among others, when working near patients and recipients of care. This is because the regions have such guidelines.
However, since November, the Swedish Public Health Agency has recommended oral protection in the first instance, in a situation with a greater spread of covid-19.
– According to our experts, it is the mouth guards that have the best documentation. The documentation for goggles as protection is not that good, there isn’t much there, says Anders Tegnell, a state epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency, continuing:
– So, in a situation where we have a large spread of infections, the assessment of our experts, after reconciliation with Vårdhygien and others, was that in this situation, mouth protection is preferable. Although there are many practicalities that suggest that a visor would be a better option in many different ways.
“Visor easier to use”
Several of the country’s regions follow the recommendations of the Swedish Public Health Agency. That is why, among other things, Sweden’s third largest region, the Skåne Region, now recommends wearing mouth guards first and visors second.
But regions can also conduct their own assessments at the local level. As the Västra Götaland region recommends “full-face goggles or mouthguards”, the goggles are used inter alia in the care of the elderly in the city of Gothenburg.
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Does it imply an increased risk of infection?
– You have to do this risk assessment in any given situation, in any given context, so to speak. It’s very important that you do it locally, so that you strike a balance between how easy it is to wear something – it’s so much easier to wear a visor than to wear a mouth guard in so many different ways.
– This is how you have done the general assessment at the local level, that you think this is what works best in this given situation, I think you should follow it.
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Local assessments are needed
The knowledge base, published by the Swedish Public Health Agency, focuses on protecting patients and caregivers against infection by asymptomatic personnel. However, both the mouth guard and the visor are also considered to mean some protection for those who wear it.
– This is like what we say is the general level of knowledge, but we also say very clearly that this should be translated into a practical reality when you are working. There may be different evaluations depending on the conditions in which you have to wear different types of protective equipment, says Anders Tegnell.
Several circumstances need to be taken into account when deciding what protective gear to use, says Thomas Lindén. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer / TT
Thomas Lindén, department head of the National Board of Health and Welfare, agrees that different evaluations may be necessary in different situations. This is because it is also about the conditions that exist for the staff.
– There are several aspects that must be brought together in the same approach. It is both the infection control aspect and the occupational safety aspect that must be met in the same recommendation, it says and continues:
– Then it can also be the case that those who work in the health sector have several different work steps that you have to carry out with the same outfit, so to speak. So it may be the case that one job step controls the clothing or equipment you need to have in another job step as well.
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