PREPARDNESS FOR SINGLE OR SMALL OUTBREAKS
In this era of travel where an individual is moving from one country to the other as part of his work, it is imperative for the organization to plan and deploy health care and preventive measures as follows:
1. Is the travel essential? If it’s not, we should use means like email, video conferencing or telephone to stay in contact and explore the official work delivery without travel.
2. All staff should be instructed to keep away from locations of group congregations, like malls, cinema halls, etc. This is important to minimize the risk of picking up the infection from the community especially if we know that we are meeting with people returning from countries where the infection is reported.
3. Office sanitary measure awareness updates you to deal with the office situation and the infection.
4. We should learn to segregate work by either having flexi-timings or ensuring that the manpower is split into two seamless groups. Key functionaries should be available in both the groups so that we can ensure that one function can be done by two different personnel. It would be better to identify more functionaries if possible.
5. The identified persons should be in complete knowledge of all the work, so that work continues in the absence of the other.
6. Protocols and policies needs to be identified on mandatory leave.
7. The above is essential to ensure that the person who is clinically looking unwell can be asked to take leave.
8. Working from home should be encouraged.
9. Is your office clean and safe? Please understand respiratory viruses can spread from telephones, air conditioned air, faucet handles, door handles etc. A facility sanitation protocol needs to be followed.
10. Shaking hands could transmit the infection, if you want to greet, please ensure that its the Indian way – where Namaste is good.
12. Social greeting by hugging and kissing on the cheek can transmit the infection. It is better to refrain from this.
13. One could get the infection by coming in contact with virus left by the previous person on a inanimate object, transferring it on to the hand and then on to the nose and eyes.
14. The virus survives for several hours on moist surfaces and clothing so please ensure if you are feeling unwell it is prudent to take leave rather than infect a whole set of people.
15. On hard surfaces the virus lives for 72 hours. These are surfaces like sink, telephones, table tops, etc. The maximum virus survival is for 24 hours and then it comes down significantly. A hardsurface could be innocuous like a glossy magazine
16. The virus can also survive on clothing for 36 hours though the maximum load is reduced in about 2 to 3 hours
17. What is essential to understand is that the virus can be transmitted from these surfaces to the hands.
18. Once our hands are contaminated we would touch our nose, eyes and lip area which occurs as a subconscious gesture. This can also spread the infection in addition to the inhalation.
How to protect oneself
1. Ensure that all around you sneeze or cough into a disposable tissue. This tissue is disposed off with every usage to a waste paper basket.
2. Go ahead greet people, but ensure that hand wash is done frequently with soap and water.
3. You could alternately use a hand sanitizer this should contain alcohol and also an emollient to soften the hands.
4. We should also be responsible to report to the medical practitioner and get an examination done to assess if we are dealing with the disease or with something as innocuous as cold, upper respiratory infection, etc.
5. The medical examination is essential for the purpose of the understanding the drug to be taken for clearance of the symptoms of fever, cough, etc. It has to be clearly understood for the basic symptoms.
6. The antiviral drug Tamiflu is needed only for the complicated cases and not for simple cases.
7. This drug has side effects and will be given by prescription, for ensuring that the infection is managed properly among children, old people, people with diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cancer and immune suppressed patients.
8. Please understand just being in the midst of a pandemic is no reason for panic. Things could be controlled.
CLEANING OF OFFICES
It is seen that no extra sanitation measures are required.
1. Frequent cleaning of all moist areas like sinks, basins, taps and other fixtures are cleaned with soap and water and then sanitized with a disinfectant.
2. Telephones, desk areas should be cleaned with mops soaked with soap and water.
3. Alternatively we could use alcohol wipes. The alcohol wipes should use isopropyl alcohol which should be freshly opened and used within a short time.
4. Ensure tissues are available, especially for persons who are coughing and have secretions.
5. Ensure that all air conditioning filters are cleaned at recommended intervals.
6. Ensure that during the holidays the rooms are aired and cleaned.
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