Swine Flu

Picking up someone elses bugs is miserable whether just a mild cold, dicky tummy or other non-descript infection and I for one resent the Cavalier attitude toward public hygene generally although, many a mucky pup will, for some reason, bleach and perfume their own homes to death.

Flu, as with many other viruses, evolve and mutate at an alarming rate and should swine flu get a foothold in the general populas by the end of summer most workplaces will look like the Mary Celest by January 2010.

Personal and workplace hygene is critical to our generic well-being and wo betide anyone who sneezes all over me - Pigglet or anyone else.

Mexico got it wrong. Other countries are stiving to do it better. Some viruses are more easily spread, this is one of them. Health controls are no different from safety controls - they are there to reduce likliehood. Remember health & Safety Legislation covers health and welfare as well as safety. Most companies want to keep staff absence to a minimum. Its accepted there are many risk situations outwith an employers control but it is an employers duty to protect where reasonable practicable

you are probably right, people are making too much of this as the moment however, when government advice through the media that flu virus can be spread through touching hard surfaces such as telephones and lift buttons its difficult to convince employees that they are talking out of their backsides!

It is totally pointless, because most people do interact with others on a daily basis. You are very unlikely to catch flu by touching a door handle, the main method of transmission is breathing in a wonderful mix of mucus and virus when somebody sneezes.
That's why we get colds and flu every year.

I'm off to live in a cave so I don't get drowned by rising sea levels, crushed by a meteorite, catch Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, SARS, Smallpox, Plague or whatever is in the news this month.

Hello

Just a small point NBC or gloves will only give protection to the wearer, I think sensible measures can be taken if the situation gets worse over the summer period.
Not sure why precautions should be taken with this particular strain of flu and not any other, the outcome seems the same.

Barry

Ian,

is it not because they walk down the street passing somebody that sneezes, touching door handles etc in public areas the very reason to have some sort of cleansing facilities so they dont spread it around the workplace by touching keyboards, lift buttons, door handles, vending machines, copiers etc etc.

Maybe alcohol rubs is a bit extreem at the moment but having suitable hand washing facilities with anti-bacterial soap may just help to prevent that one person who was not wearing their NBC suit infecting half your workforce

totally pointless, what do your staff do when walking down the street and somebody sneezes? how do they open doors to other buildings? How about issuing full NBC suits to everybody?

We have done this for over 12 months, however keeping stock levels up is proving difficult with reduced supplier stock (more people wanting it) and staff taking it home!

Thank the 24-hour news channels for encouraging this?

Hand gel around the office will not prevent other routes of disease propagation e.g. the bus queue, fast food retail...

In a typical office with no exceptionally vulnerable cases to manage, my written reason would be 'This is a contribution to the current national effort aimed at reducing the rate of disease propagation and thereby to help protect the NHS and other social services from an unmanageable surge in demand'.

Nothing more, nothing less.

If for any reason you take new measures which are purposely not consistent with this national policy of slowing the spread of disease you should write down why. There are many good reasons for disagreeing with current policy and only you can be the judge of this. It would take some courage, but you might be right.

Hi Julian,

We took this step last week. We have anti-bacterial gel on reception & at each of our goods inward areas. i have also placed anti-bacterial surface cleaner in our office areas.

We already used the gel for our first aid rooms, so had it in stock. There is a longer lead time on it now though...20th May from one large supplier.

With so much media coverage of government advice i.e Catch it. Bin it. Kill it, the idea of installing alcohol hand rub dispensers around our offices is appealing.

I'm wondering if anyone else has thought about it or perhaps has already taken steps to prevent cross contamination of swine flu or any other infection for that matter.