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Health Matters: Stopping the Spread of Flu |
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Stopping the Spread of Flu
Start with hand washing, but extend good hygiene to communal office equipment, phones, keyboards and your desk.
By Sally Huggins
When the flu spreads throughout the community, businesses can be hit hard, especially small businesses where there are fewer employees to pick up the slack. While this year's season is winding down, another will follow.
To reduce the odds of illness spreading throughout a workplace, health officials recommend a few precautions, including that sick workers simply stay home.
The main way that illnesses such as colds and flu are spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes, known as droplet spread. This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air and are deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby.
Germs also can be spread when people touch respiratory droplets on a surface, such as a desk, and then touch their eyes, mouth or nose. Some viruses and bacteria can live two hours or more on surfaces, such as doorknobs, desks and office equipment, said Jill Greig, infection control supervisor at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.
Wash Your Hands
First and foremost, experts agree that the best defense is to simply wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. A suggestion is to sing Happy Birthday to yourself because it's about the right length of time for hand washing.
Alcohol-based hand wipes and gel sanitizers also are extremely effective, Greig said. They actually kill more organisms on hands than soap and water. Because people touch their eyes, nose and mouth frequently, without even realizing it, it pays to cleanse frequently with a hand sanitizer. With the gel, rub your hands until the gel is dry. It doesn't need water because the alcohol in it kills the germs on your hands.
Use soap and water when using the restroom, though, because sanitizers don't clean through physical matter, Greig said. And use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the restroom door after washing. A study showed 229,000 germs per square inch on frequently touched faucet handles.
Clean Your Desk
Another place where germs harbor is on desktops. The same study found 21,000 germs per square inch on the average work desk. Because people eat, drink, cough over and touch their desks, germs flourish.
Health experts recommend that you use disinfectant wipes to clean your desk, phone, computer keyboard, copy machine panel and door handles in the workplace. Also run your coffee cup and water bottle through the dishwasher frequently.
Coughing Etiquette
Everyone should practice respiratory etiquette, covering their mouth and nose with a tissue¾not their hand¾when coughing or sneezing. If you don't have a tissue, cough into your sleeve, your shoulder or your coat, Greig suggested. Covering your nose and mouth in this way will prevent the droplet spread in the air, and keep germs off your hands.
And don't be polite. If someone coughs, coworkers often feel it is impolite to back away. But that is exactly what you should do to stop the spread. Back at least six feet away from someone coughing or sneezing to reduce the chances of droplets getting on you.
Stay Home
Generally, adults are able to infect others beginning the day before symptoms develop and up to five days after becoming sick. That means you may be able to pass on the flu to someone else before you know you are sick.
Although you can't stay home before you know you are sick, many employees don't stay home even after they know that they are. A survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) found that more than a third of people went to work sick because they felt pressured to do so by their employer.
Greig said employees at the medical center are asked to stay home when they first experience respiratory symptoms, such as coughing or sneezing, so they don't spread their illness.
Employees who go to work sick not only risk infecting their coworkers, but also are likely to be less productive. Studies show that lost productivity, even when ill workers are on the job, can have a serious impact on a company's productivity. And being on the job while ill increases the likelihood that more workers in the company will become ill, resulting in even more lost productivity.
Remote technology allows ill employees to work from home if they must continue to work. Companies that want to maximize productivity while maintaining a healthful work environment can provide remote work options to employees. Or, encouraging employees to cover for each other on critical work assignments can have the added benefit of creating a better team environment and cross-trained workers.
The NFID has an educational bulletin for businesses to post in the workplace listing flu symptoms and suggestions to keep the flu from spreading. The bulletin can be downloaded from the NFID Web site at www.nfid.org/docs/workplaceflu.html.
Long Lasting Version
Flu is a highly contagious viral infection of the nose, throat and lungs, occurring most often in the late fall, winter and early spring. It afflicts more than 60 million Americans every year. Symptoms include extreme exhaustion, a non-productive cough, headache, severe aches and pains and chest discomfort. The tiredness can last two to three weeks.
This year's variety is having a bigger impact than in some years, with employees requiring three to seven days to recover. Often they will return after a couple of days, spread the infection, and then have to miss more days because of the fatigue.
Experts recommend seeing a physician if symptoms continue, but often people find it difficult to see their doctor quickly because the office is inundated with patients who have flu symptoms.
In most cases, bed rest and plenty of fluids is all that is required to treat the illness and prevent dehydration. According to the American Lung Association, over-the-counter medications can minimize discomfort but don't treat the virus.
In some cases, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication, such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza), to reduce the length and severity by at least one day. Treatment with these medications is most effective when started within two days after flu symptoms appear.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the best defense against the flu is getting your workforce vaccinated and promoting good hygiene, such as hand washing and covering sneezes and coughs.
Even if the strain circulating around your office is not the primary one targeted by this year's vaccine, the shot can provide enough protection to prevent or lessen illness severity and prevent flu-related complications. The viruses that cause the flu change yearly, and the flu vaccine is updated each year to reflect this.
For more information about the flu, go to www.cdc.gov/flu.
Sally Huggins is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.
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