Comic carries hygiene message

Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) officials are hoping a new comic book will help raise awareness about hand hygiene and hospital-acquired infections, such as Clostridium difficile.

The Bug Stops Here! will be released Sept. 23 at a free public event at the hospital. The comic book is for staff and visitors and is produced by PRHC.

The nine-page book is about a young girl named Sammy who goes to the hospital to visit her sick grandmother.

Along the way she learns about C. difficile, hand washing and other ways to prevent catching infections.

Full Article: here.

Swine Flu Upsets Rituals of Greeting

…the era of swine flu poses the thorny challenge of how to express cordiality, friendship, even love — while staying, as the authorities recommend, at least three to five feet away from anyone who coughs, sneezes or might otherwise show signs of infection with the H1N1 virus.

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Handshakes have been cut short, kisses aborted. Warm embraces have been supplanted by curt pats on the back.

Full Article: here.

France facing ‘la bise’ ban over swine flu fears

It is as French as croissants and coffee, but “la bise”, France’s age-old method of greeting with a peck on the cheek, is facing a ban due to fears that kissing is the best way to catch swine flu.

Companies and schools have started outlawing the traditional French social ritual following a health ministry warning that it could turn into the kiss of death for the nation in the event of a winter H1N1 pandemic.

Large companies like Axa, the insurance giant, have told employees to salute each other with a wave of the hand rather than a kiss or firm handshake.

Full Article: here.

Parishioners To No Longer Offer Handshake As Sign Of Peace

St. Veronica Church staff distributed a flier at weekend Masses advising that participants should no longer hold hands for the “Our Father” prayer or shake hands during the “sign of peace.”

Full Article: here.

Swedish politician mulls Thai bows to counter swine flu

While several local parishes of the Church of Sweden are advocating the use of fortified wine to prevent the spread of swine flu during communion, a Swedish politician is proposing a different measure to prevent the virus from spreading – the introduction of traditional Thai greetings in an effort to reduce direct contact.

Full Article: here.

Elmo helps fight swine flu (SFGate)

CMAJ editorial urges pandemic vaccine without adjuvant for high-risk groups

An editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal is urging the government to fast-track pandemic H1N1 vaccine for high-risk groups.

And to do that, it suggests offering these groups the vaccine without an adjuvant, a boosting compound that may stretch limited supplies.

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Using adjuvanted vaccine offers the benefit of faster delivery of enough vaccine to meet Canada’s needs. For instance, it could allow a half dose or a third of a dose to be used for each person, such that each batch that rolls off the production line will protect more people than vaccine without adjuvant.

Full Article: here.

Read the CMAJ editorial here.

Study: Half of health staff would refuse swine flu shot, despite plans to vaccinate them first

About half of Hong Kong’s health workers would refuse the swine flu vaccine, new research says, a trend that experts say would likely apply worldwide.

In a study that polled 2,255 Hong Kong health workers this year, researchers found even during the height of global swine flu panic in May, less than half were willing to get vaccinated.

Most said they would pass on the swine flu shot, which is not yet available, because they were afraid of side effects and doubted how safe and effective it would be.

Full Article: here.

Special pandemic fees for doctors ‘outrageous’: nurses’ federation

It’s “outrageous” that any Canadian doctors should be negotiating extra fees for treating H1N1 flu patients during a pandemic, says the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses.

Linda Silas said she was “stunned” to hear doctors in Alberta have negotiated a special payment rate as high as $518 an hour, in the event the provincial government is forced to declare a public health emergency over the flu pandemic. Alberta nurses, who are salaried employees of the health system, will not be offered enhanced payment.

Full Article: here.

Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of swine flu test for US troops overseas

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it has authorized the emergency use of a swine flu test for U.S. troops overseas, allowing the military to speed up diagnoses and treatment of a virus that could cause widespread infections again this fall.

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The authorization allows for the use of unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products during a public health emergency, the FDA said.

The FDA said the test will help to speed up diagnosis of H1N1 infections so that deployed troops can quickly begin treatment.

Full Article: here.

In April, Egypt ordered a complete cull of the country’s pig population. Approximately 350,000 pigs were slaughtered.

Unfortunately, Egypt’s garbage management industry, which features one of the world’s highest recycling rates at 85%, was pig-dependent. Organic waste which previously was sorted out and fed to the pigs, is now piling up as rubbish — leading to major garbage and health problems.

Read more: here.

“Three amigos” summit dominated by swine flu, trade

Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada gather on Monday to present a united front to try to limit the spread of the H1N1 swine flu, but there is less unity on simmering trade issues.
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The leaders, sometimes referred to as “the three amigos,” are expected to issue a joint communique stressing their shared commitment to keep a predicted resurgence in the H1N1 virus this autumn as limited as possible.

A senior Obama administration official said the goal was to ensure that the people of the three countries are fully informed about steps to mitigate the spread of the virus, which is believed to have originated in Mexico last spring.

Full Article: here.

Back in January, our newsletter’s MediaWatch section included a story on the dangers of scrubs as fashion statement.

This past weekend, the CBC’s Sunday Edition ran their coverage of this story:

We all know hospitals are dangerous places, literally crawling with dangerous bugs. In fact, around 8,000 Canadians a year die of infections caused by microbes such as C.Difficile which pollute hospital emergency wards, treatment rooms and patients’ rooms. But what can happen when all those hospital bugs begin turning up in coffee shops, on public transit, or even grocery stores carried by hospital personnel wearing their green scrubs, their uniforms, outside the hospital?

Listen to their coverage (in hour 2) here.

Govt urged to flout EU rules during pandemic

EU rules which say doctors can only work 48 hours a week should be suspended during the swine flu crisis, say health experts.

Doctors’ group RemedyUK fears it will further burden an already overstretched NHS. It wants special measures to bypass the reduced working week, which begins for junior doctors on Saturday.

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The Royal College of Surgeons has also urged the Government to ditch the European Working Time Directive if the situation gets worse.

Full Article: here.

>>Cities slam Ottawa for poor pandemic planning

A lapse in federal leadership has left the country with no plan to keep essential services going if pandemic influenza becomes more deadly this fall, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities warns.

“The global outbreak of the H1N1 virus has exposed a serious gap in the federal government’s overall pandemic preparedness strategy,” Basil Stewart, the president of the federation, writes in an open letter sent Monday to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

“Currently, there is neither a national plan, nor guidelines in place, to help cities and communities protect critical front-line workers such as police, firefighters, public transit operators, water and wastewater workers and municipal public-health professionals. This puts at risk the critical services that provide the foundation for effective pandemic response measures.”

Full Article: here.

>>Tamiflu approved for Canadian babies

Canadian infants under one year old who are sick with the flu may receive the antiviral drug Tamiflu, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Thursday under new swine flu pandemic guidelines.

The Public Health Agency of Canada prepared the interim guidance to help doctors treating infants with influenza-like illness during the H1N1 pandemic.

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“Although there are limited data supporting the use of Tamiflu in children under one, there now exists an urgent need for recommendations to treat this population, given this group’s increased risk for morbidity and mortality from influenza,” the agency said on its website.

Full Article: here.

>>Flu pandemic planning underway

Many businesses in Canada developed plans following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002 and the emergence and spread of the avian flu, and those have been pulled from the shelves and dusted off since the swine-flu outbreak started in late April.

Those plans are now being tested and companies are determining how they can be applied to the swine-flu pandemic that has made more than 10,000 Canadians sick.

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Bell Canada, for example, a company that has had two employees confirmed with swine flu, started developing a pandemic plan about three years ago and activated it in the spring when swine flu began to emerge. Adjustments, however, had to be made.

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Communication with employees is central to all the plans, said Michelis, and to that end Bell has been keeping staff up-to-date through internal e-mails and a pandemic website. It has also put up posters in company washrooms about proper hygiene and provided hand sanitizers. The company plans to host flu-shot clinics in the fall for its 42,000 employees.

Bell’s business is designated by the government as part of the country’s critical infrastructure and, as such, the company must have an emergency management plan, under which its pandemic plan falls.

Full Article: here.