Published: October 28, 2009 09:41 pm         

H1N1 prep work key to handling outbreak

Seminar offers businesses advice on how to weather swine flu pandemic

TERRE HAUTE — “Do not panic — yet!”

That advice from Dr. Randy Stevens came Wednesday afternoon during a seminar for businesses in the Wabash Valley facing the H1N1 flu pandemic that’s sweeping the nation.

The Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce teamed up with AP&S Clinic, Union Hospital Occupational Health Center, Terre Haute Regional Hospital and the Vigo County Health Department to help answer questions on how businesses should prepare for a flu outbreak here.

The anticipated peak for the H1N1 pandemic is the week before and week after Halloween, so the peak is now.

By the end of year, said Stevens, director of the Union Hospital Center for Occupational Health, an estimated 60 percent of people worldwide will become infected by H1N1, but only 35 percent will become sick.

Those statistics are not intended to scare the public, but do illustrate that H1N1 is a serious illness that can be survived.

Businesses also can survive a pandemic despite temporarily losing a large chunk of their work force because of illness.

There are things that businesses can do to lessen the spread of illness in the workplace, including setting up hand-sanitizing stations at building entry points, and offering surgical masks to those who are coughing or want to avoid germs from other people.

Stevens’ recommendations include:

• Get the H1N1 vaccine when it is available. Producing the vaccine is a Herculean effort right now because it usually takes about a year to get a vaccine ready. This strain of H1N1 was recognized only in April, he said, and yet the vaccine is already becoming available, even though production is not meeting demand at this time.

• Get the “seasonal flu” vaccination when it’s available.

• Anyone age 60 and older should get the pneumococcal vaccine now. Half of the deaths involving H1N1 have occurred in people who should have gotten this vaccination.

• Stay home if you are sick.

• Stay away from hospitals and public facilities where you could spread illness or pick up germs.

Stevens pointed out that the typical year results in 40,000 deaths from influenza. Of those deaths, 80 to 90 percent are in people with chronic diseases or co-infections with bacteria such as staph, pneumococcal and MRSA. That is the same thing that is being seen now, Stevens said.

“In looking at the autopsies of people who have died this time [of H1N1], they also have a secondary bacterial infection,” the doctor stated.

Vaccination is highly recommended for the recognized high-risk groups of pregnant women, young people and those with chronic disease, as well as the elderly.

Six percent of all H1N1 deaths so far have been women who were pregnant, Stevens said, and that is rare for deaths from seasonal flu. The vaccine is available at the maternal health clinic in Vigo County, but some pregnant women are turning down the vaccination.

“If I had a person now in my family that was pregnant, I would be pushing them hard to get this vaccination,” Stevens said.

So far, H1N1 has been less deadly than the typical seasonal flu, he continued, but more people will be down with the virus.

Carolyn Hamilton, chief nursing officer for Regional Hospital, encouraged businesses to set up “sneeze stations” at all entrances to encourage respiratory etiquette.

Flu is spread in the air via respiratory droplets propelled from a person’s sneeze, and by touching something with the virus on it.

“Handwashing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection,” Hamilton said.

She also encourages coughing persons to sit at least three feet away from others in common areas.

And she explained that “presenteeism” — the act of being present at work even if one is too sick to be productive, or work beyond the expected hours — is not a badge of honor for people who do not like to miss work.

Reinforcing the message that handwashing is essential, Megan Bland, health educator and media coordinator with the Vigo County Health Department, said people should pay special attention to not only their palms when washing their hands, but also to the wrists, areas between the fingers and around the thumb, and particularly the fingernail area.

She also noted: “Hand sanitizer is not a replacement for handwashing.”

Hand sanitizer should be used when handwashing is not immediately available, she said, but is not an alternative to 20 seconds of soap and water.