(CIDRAP News) The current public health advice that Americans should get their seasonal flu shots early this year has prompted some to voice concern that their protection will fade later in the season. But medical literature and disease experts indicate there is no good evidence that immunity conferred by the shots wanes so quickly.
Editor's note: This story was revised Sep 29 to correct a detail about when pneumonia cases were diagnosed.
(CIDRAP News) Business officials who attended a conference this week on how the business world can cope with the H1N1 influenza pandemic said employee absenteeism was far and away their leading concern.
In live polling conducted during a conference plenary session, 81% of the attendees said their greatest concern about the pandemic was absenteeism. Only 13% said they were most worried about disruption of critical supply chains.
(CIDRAP News) On the final day of a business preparedness summit in Minneapolis, a panel of experts emphasized having clear, open communication with employees as well as having flexible planslessons they learned from being on the frontlines in Mexico and the Southern Hemisphere during the spring novel H1N1 outbreak.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) today scaled back its estimate of how many doses of pandemic vaccine that producers will likely make over the next year and said it hopes to gather enough vaccine donations to cover about 10% of developing countries' populations.
Sept 23, 2009 (CIDRAP News) To mask or not to mask, hand washing versus hand sanitizers, how long to stay away from the workplace if sick with novel H1N1 influenza, tips for travelthese were some of the issues addressed in a panel discussion yesterday during a business preparedness summit in Minneapolis.
(CIDRAP News) With so much uncertainty over how broad and severe the next wave of H1N1 influenza could be, now is the time to focus on the two top goals of saving and sustaining lives, Dr. Julie Gerberding, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told business groups today.
(CIDRAP News) With the second wave of the H1N1 influenza virus now hitting, much of the response toe the pandemic is focused on the development and distribution of an effective vaccine, a project that poses many challenges and uncertainties.
(CIDRAP News) – A federal review of state and local pandemic preparedness efforts identified some gaps in medical surge planning and said that, while states are typically prepared to distribute antivirals and vaccines, some cities hadn't addressed all of the recommended planning components.
The findings were released today in two reports from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).
(CIDRAP News) With the health of small businesses at stake in fragile economic times, federal officials and one of the nation's top business groups pushed new efforts this week to help companies prepare for the next wave of the H1N1 pandemic influenza.
