Read more:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-11-23-swinefluupdate23_ST_N.htm

Prepare yourself for H1N1 using safety products from Cole-Parmer

Snippet compliments of Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY.

CVD47XVQD3N3

For workplace settings, the spreading virus threatens to interrupt business, create a loss in production, and debilitate the workforce due to many employees falling ill at the same time. As the flu season moves into the winter months and holiday gatherings bring staff members into closer contact, the potential for greater transmission—and more absences—increases.

Typical H1N1 flu symptoms include fever or chills, cough or sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, tiredness, diarrhea, or vomiting. The 2009 H1N1 flu, like the seasonal flu, may worsen underlying chronic medical conditions.

According to Janet Napolitano, United States Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, preparedness is the best antidote to public health threats such as H1N1, especially in the workplace. To safeguard your staff, consider the following strategies:

Safety

• Provide resources that promote hygiene, including hand sanitizers, disinfectants, disposable towels, and more, that work to keep surfaces clean.
• Review policies for sick leave and communicate the policies to employees. Emphasize flexibility, allowing workers who have the flu to stay home and away from other workers. Also, plan to have workers stay home if they are caring for a sick family member.
• Consider telecommuting as an option for employees who are equipped to continue their work from home.

Business Operations

• Prepare business continuity plans to cope with absences and maintain productivity. Some health officials may advise “social distancing,” or increasing the physical space between people to decrease frequency of contact and stem the spread of the virus.
• Identify key roles required to maintain operations and key communicators for assignments and functions that may need to be filled by backup personnel. Also, select a staff member to assist those who may become ill.
• Establish an emergency communications plan to put into effect if needed. This should include a list of who is responsible for communicating business status updates both internally and externally.

General Communications

• Keep employees informed about how to prevent the spread of the virus, what symptoms to look for, and how to protect themselves. Encourage workers to get the seasonal flu vaccine and the 2009 H1N1 vaccine when available.
• Share policies and plans with employees so they are aware of your expectations. Prepare ways to communicate with employees who do not speak English or those with disabilities.

Staff members can take an active role in maintaining their health by washing their hands frequently (with soap for 20 seconds or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer), avoiding touching their nose, mouth, and eyes, and covering their coughs and sneezes with tissues. In addition, keeping work surfaces, including telephones and computers, clean and avoiding using coworkers’ phones and computers will help prevent the spread of the virus. Of course, a healthy lifestyle including proper diet, rest, exercise, and relaxation is a significant catalyst to maintaining overall health.

Check out all of these cool safety preparedness products from Cole-Parmer

This year, it’s especially important to have clear information on what you can do to prepare for the flu season. With this in mind, we are happy to share a new feature for the U.S. which allows you to more easily find locations near you for getting both the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine. After expanding Google Flu Trends to a total of 20 countries and 38 languages, allowing more people to see near real-time estimates of flu activity, we began brainstorming with the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS), their flu.gov collaborators and the American Lung Association on the flu shot finder and other ways Google can be helpful to people this flu season.

You can check out the flu shot finder at www.google.com/flushot. The same tool will also be available shortly on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Association websites. It’s important to note that this project is just beginning and we have not yet received information about flu shot clinics for many locations. In addition, many locations that are shown are currently out of stock. We launched this service now in order to help disseminate information about locations where vaccines are available, and also to make more vaccine providers aware of the project so that they can contribute.

Especially given slower than expected vaccine production, we think it’s important to bring together flu shot information in a coherent manner. We’ve been working with HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local health agencies to gather information on flu vaccine locations across the country, particularly for the H1N1 flu vaccine (both the nasal-spray vaccine and the shot). At the moment we have data for locations of flu vaccine directly from 20 states and counting. We are also continuing to add information from chain pharmacies and other providers in all 50 states; today, you’ll find results from chains such as Walgreens, CVS and PDX participants, such as Kmart, Duane Reade, WinnDixie and Giant Eagle.

Of course you should still call flu vaccine providers ahead of time to find out more about availability and eligibility for the two vaccines.

We hope to continue providing you with relevant information to help keep you and your loved ones healthy.

Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager and Jennifer Haroon, Product Marketing Manager.    11/10/2009 09:15:00 AM

Re-posted via courtesy of Google:  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/finding-flu-vaccine-information-in-one.html

youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gwUdmPl0bU

pandemic preparedness:  http://bit.ly/2SeJmk

from flu.gov: http://www.flu.gov/psa/contest/2009/index.html

Over the past several months there has been a flurry of news activity surrounding pandemic flu (specifically swine and bird flu) and preparations at the global, federal, and local level to address this concern. It can be difficult for those in private industry and for those government customers not directly involved in planning to understand their role.

Business continuity planning for this type of event can have far-reaching benefits. The same strategies adopted for pandemic preparedness can be modified for use in similar catastrophes. Health and Human Services (HHS), in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, has developed guidelines to assist businesses with planning efforts. A host of additional resources are available to become informed on pandemic flu and to develop sound contingency plans. Planning and preparing now will have a positive impact on an organization’s survival during times of crisis.

Full Article, contains links to planning checklists and other excellent resources.
 

Respiratory Protection: Preparing Workplaces for an Influenza Breakout

An influenza outbreak in a workplace can deliver a devasting blow to productivity and morale. Learn ways to best protect your place of business from an outbreak and how to maintain operations should a pandemic occur. Full Story