Week 6: feedback

Hello, I have some news for you today. The Norwegian government has decided that corona-virus disease is defined as an occupational disease from now on. This was decided very quickly and unexpectedly, and I hope the same is the case also in other countries. However, this week we have taught you about pregnant women at work, and some of you have questions to this.

The first question is: Is there a corona-virus danger for pregnant women at work? We do not know. There is no research on this topic yet. However, authorities here in Norway, they advice that pregnant health personnel should not work with corona-virus patients. This is just a precaution, to be on the safe side.

The second question is: If a pregnant woman has an abortion during their working period even after a risk assessment has been done, is it considered an occupational disease or work related? Spontaneous abortions related to the work situations are not considered as occupational diseases in most countries. They are considered as work related, unwanted events which do not qualify for economic compensation.

The third question is: Health personnel use facemasks to protect themselves from the corona-virus. How do we know that the quality of the facemask is good enough?

I can try to answer this question myself: The recommendation at The University Hospital here in Bergen is that in intensive care units for corona patients the health workers should use facemasks of type P2 or P3 in the European system, or N95 or higher in the US system. In the normal wards for corona patients they use surgical masks and face shields. Ok! As you see, we are still at our home office. The corona-virus cases here in Norway is clearly decreasing, but we still have to be careful and not open our society too soon. We hope the best for you. Bye for now and TAKE CARE!