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CDC to Businesses: Keep Employees Sick with Flu at Home |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Friday, 21 August 2009 |
Medical officials discuss changes in influenza guidance
Businesses should make plans to keep employees sick with influenza at home for at least 24 hours after their sickness clears and generally distance workers from one another whenever possible during the anticipated H1N1 outbreak this fall, federal health officials said in a Webcast Thursday.
Dr. Toby Merlin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Homeland Security Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Til Jolly joined other health officials to discuss the newly released "Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to the 2009-2010 Influenza Season" on www.flu.gov, the federal Web site for the most up-to-date influenza information.
The new guidance suggests a couple of changes to how businesses should handle the spread of influenza among their workers, Merlin noted.
"It divides the guidance into what businesses should do now for the level of severity we are seeing with 2009 H1N1 influenza now. But it also tells them steps they could take should the disease becomes more severe," Merlin stated.
"It also provides some change in guidance on how long people who have been infected with influenza should stay away from workplace. It emphasizes much more strongly than before the importance of asking employees who are sick to stay home from the workplace and to put into place policies that facilitate sick employees being able to stay home or employees being able to stay at home or employees being able to stay at home and care for others who might be sick," he added.
Individuals sick with influenza should stay home 24 hours after their fever has resolved without being on any fever-reducing medication, Merlin instructed.
Jolly said that businesses should encourage "social distancing" to keep people apart as much as possible, perhaps through encouraging greater use of telecommuting or teleconferencing. Workers in certain fields of critical infrastructure sectors or first responders often do not have the luxury of working remotely, he noted, so their employers must have continuity of operation plans to keep things going should a lot of their employees fall sick.
Merlin and Jolly also strongly recommend that healthcare workers take extra care to avoid transmission of H1N1 swine flu. Although the federal government will not mandate that healthcare workers receive an H1N1 vaccination, individual states may do so, Merlin said. New York state, for example, is considering regulations to require vaccination for some health care workers.
"We would very strong encourage healthcare workers to get vaccinated, partly to protect themselves and partly to protect patients. Ill healthcare workers expose many other people in healthcare settings," Jolly said.
Merlin stressed that workers should wash their hands vigorously for 20 seconds with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers when soap and water is not available.
Jolly also emphasized that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will not consider closing US borders to prevent the spread of swine flu into the United States.
"It's not our plan to close the border," Jolly stated. "It's really driven by science. All of our decisions, all of our planning, and all of our policymaking is really driven by science. The disease is across borders. Even if the disease weren't across borders, it would be very difficult to stop it from crossing borders because of the nature of the disease. In fact now, the disease has spread worldwide and closing the borders would not stop the disease."
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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