December 21, 2005
Bird Flu - keeping the topic (and you) alive
I know, you thought I would give you a bird flu break just because it's almost Christmas. But noooo - I simply cannot shirk my civic duty.
Let's see. I spent much of the weekend preparing emergency "go" packs for my sweeties . They are a little too stuffed (the packs, that is) at the moment -- maybe the dried apricots will have to go, or perhaps the cotton puffs. It's a big job. Here are a couple of lists to work from if you are inclined to shower your loved ones with preparations.
There is disappointing news about the failure of a process for rapid production of flu vaccine. "'This means', says [David] Fedson [founder of the vaccine industry's pandemic taskforce], that “if all the world's influenza vaccine companies were to produce this vaccine for six months, there would be enough to vaccinate only 225 million people". Let's revise our federal state and local pandemic plans with this in mind -- I don't think that Fedson even takes into account that vaccine production itself might be adversely effected by staff illness.
There is a newly named phenomenon called "presenteeism", the opposite of absenteeism, describing the practice of going to work sick, and infecting others. Though we have, in the past, rather encouraged this behavior, and seen it as dedicated, the possibility of avian flu changes all that. The CDC, hoping to remove economic barriers to staying home sick, recommends that "employers look at their compensations and sick leave policies so that they can offer liberal leave when a person needs to stay home when they're sick." Righto. Maybe Starbucks, Patagonia and the Intensive Care Unit will take them up on that.
Speaking of viral transmissions, the Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan let's us know how long the H5N1 virus survives on different surfaces -- hands: 5 minutes - cloth, paper and tissue: 8 to 12 hours -- hard surfaces: 24 to 48 hours. Looks like covering and emptying one's trash can and disinfecting one's cubicle should also be introduced into the workplace. We're all washing our hands as we sing the entire first stanza of "Happy Birthday to You" already, aren't we?
Photo note: See the birdie -- it's driftwood and kind of stringy and tangled up, like this entry.