 Kupili, namazanguni kutunia. Nakawala kamaan nga nandu, kwa sumakunia hwini zo liru. Thank you for mkipenda ki semi-innovati, Ndereva Hilewi, wa mkipenda ki doktor Waohome Isaac. He will help us now to understand how do we adapt to the new norm of wearing masks How can we communicate better? We are speaking about hearing and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are things you need to understand about the mask, how to do it, and the importance of having it, and in case you find yourself communicating with someone who is not able to speak, like the verbal communication, how can you help them to understand what you mean? Good morning and welcome. How are you? Good morning! Happy Madaraka day! Happy Madaraka day! How are you? Good to see you! I don't know, we have been friends for long, but I have never hosted you, I invite you for that. 3 nagiPorna hyokupo meti 4 was In bread ke kana de aa koa. Aini tlandacede visits to h updated on zina siol Textu palikikozone. Autooriti uso da zdible u problème uses ogan씨u on some of the public health measures that we can be able to do so that we can protect ourselves from getting the Coronavirus infections okay that the Kovid-19 days he is so basically when we wtowe talking about ease det ejection of transmission of disiz s othia basic basi guidelines that have been put that can be able to help us prevent the disease because we know the disease is basically transmitted either by droplets or aerosol and that's why they must come in and we shall digest and talk more about it. All of us know that on the first that first of December is when the first case of coronavirus or covid-19 disease was reported in a local hospital local dublature office in Wuhan China and then in the 11th march the dublature declared it as a public health issue as a declared is a pandemic and then on the 21st we got our first infection on the 13th march of 2020 and then on the 27th march when the government basically declined a measures or guidelines to prevent the transmission basically what they are calling the flattening the curve and that is where we are so that we don't stretch our facility so that we protect the you know people we love our families our colleagues and so on and again on the 26th of march uh there was again extension of the guideline so that we can continue flattening the curve so some of the things that are measures that the government put on that time is like controlled you know lockdowns and curfews and the other thing is that they invoke the public health act where we are supposed to wear our mask is mandatory basically is mandatory there's no question about it is a mandatory we have to wear mask the other thing is that we have to make sure that we are we are maintaining distance and we are possible if you if you can stay at home right if you can but if you if you can't stay at home and you are going out to the public uh the guideline is that basically make sure you have good hand hygiene wear your mask and keep distance and the distance is not just the front distance is is 1.5 you know we are always like you're looking at the person in front of you and look at the person behind you so basically coronavirus uh of the kovid-19 disease affect the upper airway and sometimes even the gut it has been reported that so when in the upper airway it causes the severe upper respiratory syndrome basically caught by cost by the kovid virus coronavirus 2 and usually people have symptoms between 2 to 14 days right but there are people most of the people are asymptomatic as we have seen they don't have the symptoms so whether you have the symptoms or you are pre-symptomatic or you are symptomatic where you have the symptoms like the kov fever fatigue and so on now I hear this area this area because it affects the upper airway and also the the lining of the digestive system so you can have vomiting the area and nausea and also other symptoms like fatigue so it's closely it could be interpreted or it's close to malaria it's really not close to malaria it's just like it's a flu it's a very specific flu or virus that affects the upper airway and the lower airway and sometimes even the gastrointestinal system and basically caused by the coronavirus so we are saying that you have people who are symptomatic people who are asymptomatic they don't have any symptoms but all of them can shed the virus and transmit in equal measure that's why people are told if you have to stay home stay at home and if you have to go out please wear your mask and the people people who are symptomatic or have the disease can present differently it can be present especially for older generation or people who are in the older age group or people who have other underlying diseases like cancers diabetes anybody who has a compromised immunity these are people who basically get severe or critical disease okay and they end up either in ICU or in in critical conditions we have we have had questions on the types of masks that we are using uh there were initial stages of the COVID-19 in Kenya we were told to use surgical masks three layers do something then it came everyone can provide a mask now we have the kitenge as we have all sorts of masks that uh we are using now at this particular time now what should we use are we on the right track yeah so basically we have different types of masks like you rightly put it so we have the what we call the aerosol generating procedure mask the n94 you know those big mask or k95 depending on where they are coming from the n94 they are basically manufactured in the us and approved there and then k95 they usually with the standards uh in china so they are produced there and then we have the other ffp3 that are basically in the in new k and so on so those ones basically we we we like reserving them for the hospital because you know the way the coronavirus has come it has come and it has stretched you know our supplies and then we have the surgical mask uh the surgical mask uh that can either loop on our ears or we can tie them up so these are they are they either three ply most of them are three ply mask uh and then we have the cloth mask so the whole idea about wearing a mask is basically protecting the other person and also protecting yourself so if you have a barrier that will prevent you transmitting a disease because sometimes you are asymptomatic and you don't know or you are symptomatic and you know or and then also it can be able to filter back so that you don't get the coronavirus infection so what the n95 mask stands for is basically it it filtrates up to around 95 percent of the viruses again we have the n basically is uh we have the r n and p 95 and then we have the surgical mask now uh all all these if you have to wear a mask if you must go out we are saying please wear a mask and uh all these masks are okay because it's better to have a mask than having nothing and remember this is a mandatory requirement in the country no there was a worry and i remember uh s e s uh dr mwangangi mentioning that you could be having the mask yes but your eyes are in the open and they have uh the mufas membrane so it is even likely you can get coronavirus so if whether you have a mask please also observe social distancing now we have seen some people coming up with the ideas on the innovations of the mask that he inafuneka to apahili as in but this lower bed is still open are they helping themselves really so good i think uh one thing that uh you're really putting it rightly is that uh when you're wearing a mask you don't put other things aside for example like hand hygiene because when you touch your your your mask which basically is a surface with a fluid or secretions or anything like that you can easily transmit the bacteria or i mean the virus so i think like you're saying when you're wearing a mask don't forget the other hygiene don't touch your face when you're wearing a mask and if you touch the surfaces or other places that you think they infected especially in public places wash your hands with soap and water or you can use sanitizer the other thing is that of course the droplets can come they can enter through the mufas membrane especially the you know the fluid generating viruses in terms when somebody is speaking when people are speaking or when they are talking they usually speed some saliva or something like that and that is basically what carries the virus so some of this can fall in your eyes and you know we have talked about or people have talked about wearing a face shield or something like that to protect you and that's why the distance is very important so that when people are speaking it doesn't fall on you all right and then we have the other type of mask the clear mask is it the modern one because it's not modern you know in europe and other countries we don't have it in the country yet but i think people who have uh who are hard of hearing or they are deaf they are really suffering right because people are used naturally when you're speaking we feel your emotion we look at how your face is moving and how your lips is moving and then we can connect with you right but now the face is covered so what we have is just the eye movement and when you have them we can't be able to tell so people who have who are challenged with hearing now they have a challenge and that is why we want to see how we can talk to these people and see how we can help them so we we have we have the mask degrade speech uh some of the innovations that have come now how now do i help these people how do i communicate to them i have a mask i'm speaking to you can't tell what i'm doing with uh i could be making other faces with my mother you can't tell how do i so usually when we speak we use either voiced consonants or unvoiced consonants so voiced consonants for example are basically those ones they are voids that have volume or they are audible right and then we have unvoiced consonants like you see for example if and then we have voiced consonants that are weak they have either weak beginning or weak ending for example flowers uh so the the s at the end is weak and then we have for example when a voile uh a voice consonant is starting with a train train now you see when you are having a mask and it becomes it it muffles it it basically it muffles that sound it blocks the sound so that it's not produced and you can't be able to hear it well so the hearing the way it is the hearing there is a part where the we are able to understand sounds and there is a point where the sounds are audible now the consonants are the ones that help us with understanding so for example when i say train and rain those are two different words so how we understand them is the consonant at the end which is a high frequency rain train is a high frequency at the end so when you have a mask and i'm not able to lip read you and i have a hearing loss i will not be able to see the the the movement of your lips because train and rain will produce them differently so people who have hearing loss they are not able usually to to lip read you and this is basically what helps them to understand conversation so at the end of the day these people they have either mental exhaustion because they try to understand the conversation but because the mask is mandatory and you have to wear they either give up or they withdraw from conversation and stay on their own so what we are telling them today is that there are some tricks or some advices that you can help these people to understand you better okay number one people now have realized that they have been lip reading they have not been able to understand speech because they have been lip reading they thought they could hear well but now they can't be able to hear it so we are telling them now if you have been at home and you have discovered my staying at home has hindered me from hearing i can't be able to hear well i can't be able to understand conversation i can hear sometimes but i can't be able to understand so you probably need a hearing test and you can do a hearing test even at home so the WHO has has come up with uh with an application called here who you can download the application and do your hearing test at home and see whether you have a hearing problem now if you are somebody with a hearing aid or and or you have a hearing loss and you have a hearing aid please wear your hearing aid every time you go to the public of course people with hearing aids they are complaining now they have some of them have specs they have the hearing aid and then they have the mask a lot of a lot of bulk around there and a lot of irritation and sweating and all that of course we are telling them please wear your hearing aid when you're removing your mask because usually the way you you remove your mask put it down and wash your hands is that you have to counter check again whether the hearing aid is there because most of the time it falls down so it falls down and sometimes it can break down so again when you go outside there you can increase the volume because people when you go out in a noisy background your hearing sort of is disturbed understanding a noise becomes a problem so basically it's either you increase the volume or you can optimize your hearing aid they are now very cool hearing aids that you tap them and you are able you know it it's able to analyze the ideological analyze basically your environment and if it's a noisy environment it will optimize and you'll be able to understand conversation better if you don't have that then you need to probably increase your your voice other things that we should basically help these people to understand better especially on speech cues is if you're talking with somebody with a hearing aid if that person is behind you or through the sides if you know their name call them by their name so that you get their attention right when they turn to you and they look at you then when you're speaking to them speak slowly sometimes you might need to re refresh when they are talking for example I need to go to I need to go to school they probably don't understand school they probably need to re refresh that word again so that they can understand so you make them understand your conversation so that they don't get fatigue when you're talking to them so those are some of the things that we are trying to help them yeah and what would be now the consequences of uh or the challenges that these people have had like I'm staying with someone at home I have not realized they have hearing problems but uh it is causing me emotional breakdown I'm trying to tell them something I love who it's like they've not had me or they ignored how now do I predict this person has a problem usually you know even at home we assume every other time you see a child he's either the volume is too high they go close to the television so that they can be able and they just so close to the television you know those are sterile signs on sometimes when you talk to somebody if they are facing the other direction they will not look at you or they will not respond to you those are some of the signs you can be able to see somebody's not able to hear or sometimes you are forced to speak even loudly so that they can be able to hear and you know in with with our Kenyan system or way of doing things is that who you as fanyagi nini who you as kiyagi and it is too problem it doesn't be a problem yeah it's a problem and that problem is what we we are highlighting that this time especially now that you have a mask even at home or when you're speaking to somebody and they keep on saying ah ah they coming closer they want to you know they are looking that they are trying to they are trying to struggle to understand you in terms of communication so and that is why we are telling you if you have a mask and you're speaking to this person at least increase your voice but don't shout because if you shout you distort speech and they will not actually be able to understand you again so it's just important to talk loudly but don't shout okay it's still on the same thing of increasing your volume we have people who have problems of shouting they speak on low tones and when they do that they could break their voices how then do i adapt to this new norm so you said with hearing loss there are two ends when you can't be able to hear yourself well because of hearing loss you tend to shout so there are people who naturally shout because they can't be able to hear themselves they want to be audible they want to hear themselves and they think that you can't be able to hear so they shout hey so they shout so the other thing is that uh with our vocal cords our vocal cords they usually adapt for example you'll see pastors or people who are working in like the the touts and so on their voice they are usually very huge they can be able to shout or talk loudly without a microphone because of the stretch for a long duration of time they tend to adapt to that kind of environment sometimes it's uh they get problems like nodules on their vocal cords especially pastors or even teachers when they're teaching small kids those are unintended consequences and uh usually these are people who need to speak to see a speech specialist especially the people we call them uh professional you know professional because your voice is professional and it is gold your voice is gold people who are like teachers uh you know pastors or singers their voice is gold and if your voice is becoming hoarse then you need to see either an ENT specialist or a speech therapist to teach you how to use abdominal muscles or air from the abdomen so that you can be able to speak uh properly if you could mention about these consequences of so we have some unintended consequences of hearing loss people who have hearing loss remember hearing is the airway to highway to the heart okay so in other words whatever goes to the ears goes to the heart now people who are not able to hear properly they go through five stages of uh or consequences of hearing loss right one of them is probably they would deny that they have a hearing loss uh and the other thing is it affects one of them is the poor quality of life and this is as a result of isolation or withdrawing from their community or the people they interact with every other day so because of you don't want to repeat you don't want to ask somebody to keep on repeating the words they are saying because people don't understand you uh with the problem that you're having it's a hidden disability it has stigma in itself so people tend to withdraw people tend not to interact with others they isolate themselves uh and then they become depressed sometimes they have a lot of anxiety even when they are going for meetings if somebody is going for a for example an interview and has a hearing problem basically they have anxiety to attend to such interviews so this are unintended so people they withdraw and they stay in isolated areas and they usually don't like interacting with communities these are unintended consequences of hearing loss and there is a solution to this first of them first of all is you have to have a hearing test done of course from a hearing test when it is done you can either be fitted with a hearing aid or it could be even something that can be corrected with medicine or even procedures like cleaning the ears as simple as that because blocked works can cause hearing loss it could be especially for children like a foreign body or a bead like a bead or a bean inside the ear that is blocking the ear or transmission of sound to the ear actually not that you have mentioned about the what in the ear how often should one check the ears and the hygiene okay the the ear hygiene okay how often should it be so basically the ear has a normal cleaning mechanism like a conveyor belt it removes that from outside i mean from inside to outside like a conveyor it does that every other time okay so if you have that or works in the ear i think it would just come and fall down here and in an area we call the concha it's like a ball that will come from outside and then it will fall outside there and the basic hygiene is just to clean outside the ear but people have this tendency of using a cotton bud and cleaning inside so what you basically you do is that you take a cotton bud the ear has done its cleaning it has done the conveyor conveyor belt system of cleaning and then you push back the works so every time you do that you cause impaction of works in the ear so i think one of them is we discourage people from putting things or cleaning the ear with things like cotton bud or anything like that on yourself at times it gets so itchy yeah is it normal is it is it is it something to do with health when i feel itchy and then i insert something so usually when you sometimes when the ear is dry or there's a particle that goes inside there you you always feel like you want to eat so the extension by extension people will probably look for a cork somewhere or a chicken and pluck the feathers and do something nice on that ear you know it feels so nice and you go on and on and on sometimes you just take a piece of you know the back of your pen and you do that or a matchbox and you do that the consequences is we have seen that either that piece will be break inside there or it will you know fall inside there or you'll scratch that area and get an infection or you'll even push uh works inside there so basically i think is if you can be able to avoid that the better if you can't i think you need to be very gentle or probably somebody else to help you on that all right we are running out of time okay how now do we uh we have seen how things are now following how to communicate yes what would be your uh parting short in regards to the just background noise and hearing of mask so the advice is for people who have hearing loss if you have a hearing loss i think the first thing if you go in a place you have to analyze your environment like we are saying look at the distance the person who is ahead of you is is the person 1.5 or 2 meters ahead of you and what is the environment is it a noisy background if you are at home basically if there are a lot of things running like the television is running the tv is running kids are playing and so on that is a lot of background noise you can't be able to communicate when there's a lot of background noise so i think you need to reduce the background noise that is the first thing the other thing is the the clear mask the mask you can be able to if you can be able to get access to that uh you basically so that people can be able to leap read or you can be able to leap read people at home or at work the other thing is that we are encouraging even in public places even in places like this tv station is the use of sign language interpreters so that people who are deaf or hard of hearing can be able to read the sign language on the other end and people to understand better we are encouraging even when people are going having public address please have an interpreter so that these people can be able to understand and for people who are deaf or i cannot be able to leap read you can use some applications like live transcribe when you use that application the application will basically uh live transcribe what the other person is talking about or a hearing aid that can do that for you uh the other thing is we are encouraging people to do a hearing test right now people are not going to hospital uh for various reasons and i don't want to go into that but you can download an application at home and check your hearing and if there's you know those if there's a hearing loss of course you you need to consult with an audiologist or a hearing specialist or even an ENT specialist so that they can tell you the way forward actually before you move forward on that the app after i have downloaded maybe you could take us through the how how to do it and then how to define this is a problem or it is out or generic okay so like the WHO application is called the hiyahu who and then here the hiyahu so that application you just download it you put some earphones and then it will give you self instructions on what you're supposed to do and then once you complete the like the five minutes test on the left ear and the right ear or both sides it will tell you whether your hearing is normal or you have a mild hearing loss or moderate hearing loss or your hearing loss is completely gone and then it will even give you a guideline of what you're supposed to do okay yes all right thank you so much for coming and helping us to understand and teaching us on how to adapt this particular period of time which is difficult having mask to have to speak and having muffled the speech it is difficult i have seen people struggle to speak and we just lower our mask and speak and then we are like is there any officer around to arrest me it has been difficult and thank you so much for coming and putting things into perspective he has been my guest Dr Isaac Wahome he is an ENT specialist and i'm hoping you have learned something i'm done for the day it's Madaraka day celebrations are on going in other areas and other places we are waiting for the president's speech on what he will say this particular date in regards where we are as the COVID-19 pandemic what is on your screen now is how things are at state house that's where the president will be speaking from cabinet secretaries deputy president diplomats and dignitaries will be there of course the president is expected to address the nation other events that happen like the performances will be at Nyaya Stadium so those have been put in place as well just to entertain you like the norm the only difference is you will be seeing that from your home and there's no gathering we will celebrate madaraka day whether there is the pandemic or not so keep it keep yourself safe wash your hands stay at home if you have just come out here when it's necessary for you to be out here observe the directives that have been given by the wild health organization and the ministry of health social distancing wearing your mask appropriate by the way and then sanitizing those are the guidelines i am done here i'll be seeing you again next week same time same place until then have yourself a very good mandi prosperous week ahead and happy madaraka day i'm dereva hilewi good morning