UK warns Covid monitors don’t work well for people with darker skin

The warning was for pulse oximeters, currently used by many people at risk for severe symptoms of Covid to check their blood oxygen levels. Below a certain threshold, they must be hospitalized.

The NHS, the UK’s state-funded health service, provides them to people with symptoms of the virus, over the age of 65 or clinically vulnerable.

The NHS said in a statement that “there have been reports that pulse oximeters may be less accurate for people with darker skin because they may show higher readings of the oxygen level in the body. blood”.

The devices, attached to a finger, work by projecting a light through a person’s skin to measure the level of oxygen in the blood.

The updated guidelines for people with the virus on the main NHS website now warn: “There have been reports that they may be less specific if you have brown or black skin.

“They can show higher readings than the level of oxygen in your blood.”

But the important thing is to check regularly to see if they are going down, he adds.

Habib Naqvi, director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said the problem was affecting “diverse black (and) Asian communities”.

Members of ethnic minorities, especially black Africans and Bangladeshis, have suffered the highest death rates from the virus in Britain.

The UK’s death toll from Covid stood at 129,583 on Saturday, one of the highest in the world.

This story was posted from an agency feed with no text editing. Only the title has been changed.