What if the swine flew south?

April 28, 2009 3:12 PM

I've been tasked with overseeing some of the swine flu preparations in my workplace. Help?

As the head IT guy, I've been asked to prepare for the possibility of swine flu "trickling" down here from Mexico.

With all of the unregistered travel between these countries, it's a very real possibility. Add to that the fact that the necessary antivirals are practically unaivalable (yet) here, and that this city, with an impoverished population of over five million, is almost as densely inhabited as Mexico City. An outbreak here could easily lead to death counts in the hundreds.

The matter at hand is the following: I need to find some information on workplace transmission prevention. I've been able to find plenty of information on personal hygiene and prevention; the thing is, I've been tasked with preparing a plan for cleaning the computer and communications equipment: keyboards, phones, mice, etc.

My research skills must be failing me, since I haven't yet found any sources that recommend what materials/disinfectants to use. Will an alcohol-based solution suffice, or is something with e.g. chloride bleach, or maybe hydrogen peroxide, better?

As an aside, what personal preparations could be recommended for someone in a country that doesn't even stock Tamiflu or Relenza, other than hand hygiene to the extreme! ... and tons of worrying?

posted by papafrita to health & fitness (19 comments total)

I recently sent out our company's Flu preparations notice to everyone based on CDC and California recommendations.

Basically it boiled down to:

If you are sick or think you are getting sick DO NOT come to work. You will be sent home.
Sickness includes but isn't limited to cough, fever, sore throat, diarrhea, head ache, runny noise, nausea

Wash your hands often, especially when arriving from the outside or cough.

Alcohol based disinfectants work well, though are not a substitution for hand washing.

Some documents I read said you should wash your hands after every 3 applications of a alcohol based jell to clean off any films that may be protecting the virus.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 3:25 PM on April 28

If you're in IT, the best way to prepare would be to make sure that people can work from home if necessary. I seem to recall that this was one of the top things on the list from the CDC plan for an epidemic.

Other than that, I would buy everyone a pump dispenser of hand sanitizer and cancel any all-staff meetings or group luncheons for a while.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:28 PM on April 28 [1 favorite]

Alcohol based solutions and hand sanitizers are effective.

I use a bit of rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs or diluted rubbing alcohol with paper towels myself when I need to do a big cleaning. I used to work in a shift based operations center with shared workstations, we would take a roll of cloth-like papertowels, 2 cups of water, 4 cups of rubbing alcohol, 2 oz of dishwashing detergent and mix it all together and soak the papertowels in that and use it to rub down shared surfaces between shifts.

Alternatives to the rubbing alcohol are Distilled Vinegar and Bleach in different concentrations.

We keep 3-4 gallons of distilled white vinegar at home to use for general cleaning instead of bleach and my home/office prep has basically been to make sure we have a couple gallons of vinegar on hand a 2 gallons of bleach in case we really need it, although we don't plan on using it. We also have a couple bottles of rubbing alcohol laying around here somewhere, but it's mostly for cuts/scrapes/cleaning non vinegar friendly surfaces.

You can cover some keyboards in plastic bags if you want, some companies make them, but I've always found them annoyng and wasteful. Some keyboards and mice can be run through a dishwasher, but I wouldn't do it too often, and you might have mixed results.

At the end of the day I'd suggest making sure people who used shared workstations have their own assigned keyboards/mice and swap them in and out when they come on/off shift.

The best recommendation is to work on your personal practices and then ask that other people do as well.
posted by iamabot at 3:33 PM on April 28

You may find this influenza preparedness and response manual [pdf] useful.
posted by dersins at 3:39 PM on April 28

This post and the resources linked from it are a good place to start. The author is an EMT and started writing about dealing with flu pandemic back when the prime suspect was flying rather than oinking.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:40 PM on April 28

Flu Wiki is a good place to start. The front page has a number of relevant links.
posted by DavidNYC at 3:44 PM on April 28

Arrange for the company to stockpile a small supply of antiviral drugs. If your country does not have the necessary infrastructure to treat its citizens, the company should step up and take care of its employees. This is not even all that uncommon in the United States as I understand it.
posted by zachlipton at 3:45 PM on April 28

A lot of the information above is overkill or imprecise. Please take all information given to you by people on metafilter with a grain of salt, even mine.

The North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness (through UNC, home to one of the world's foremost schools of public health) has several excellent online courses on influenza preparedness, including one specifically on business continuity.

For your specific location, you should check out the Guatemalan ministry of health's website. I don't speak Spanish, but I'm sure they've got tons of stuff there on local contingency plans and disease monitoring. Depending on your location in the country and the availability of local government health resources, it may also be prudent to network with the local Red Cross, and perhaps your embassy (if you are not a Guatemalan citizen).
posted by The White Hat at 4:08 PM on April 28

What's up with the Flu Wiki [www.fluwikie.com] and New Flu Wiki [www.newfluwiki2.com] likeness yet separate domains?
posted by monocultured at 4:22 PM on April 28

Great recommendations so far, thanks everyone.

The White Hat, I'd already looked around the Ministry's website, but didn't find much other than press releases stating "Everything is well citizens! We're working! See?"... I mean, they even call it "swine fever". They seem to be busier closing down borders than actually finding antivirals. The government here is pegged as image-obsessed, but not very focused on results. I wouldn't trust them with a mangy dog, let alone my safety.

And, not to derail this thread, but some of my colleagues and I have been discussing whether to freak out Mad Max-style over the fact that there is, apparently, no stock of oseltamivir nor zanamivir in the city. The Wiki says these drugs "prevent progeny virions from emerging from (influenza-infected) cells". I gather from this that after infection you take the drug in order to contain the virus to only the already afflicted cells. And I'm guessing that the only treatment widely available so far is this neuraminidase-inhibiting business. Add to this the fact that the CDC said that out of the 4 drugs used for treating influenza, only these two work. That tells me that, basically, there is no other choice of treatment. Am I right in that?
posted by papafrita at 5:28 PM on April 28

I've read avoid personal contact on several websites. As long as you're paying attention to that rule - why have people come to work unless it's necessary? Why not have people work from home? MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO, this would reduce anyone's chances of catching the flu, even for the people that do have to come in. Why not follow this policy for 2-3 weeks, and see what happens with this possible pandemic? Maybe overkill, then again... Maybe not?
posted by xammerboy at 6:53 PM on April 28

You may find some of the info from our local DOE site of use:
http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/external/Home/PublicActivities/PandemicPlanning/tabid/289/Default.aspx

--sorry I'm too tired to sort through how to hypertext it - you'll have to cut & paste.....
posted by Pressed Rat at 6:55 PM on April 28

Here's a sample of a workplace checklist that you might find of some interest, and another useful website. Also, this info. "stopping the spread of germs at work" includes a Spanish language version.
posted by gudrun at 7:07 PM on April 28

papafrita: "They seem to be busier closing down borders than actually finding antivirals...That tells me that, basically, there is no other choice of treatment. Am I right in that?"

Just so you don't get too down on the Guatemalan government, a full course of oseltamivir costs about a hundred bucks US. It would cost the government about 10% of their annual budget ($5.6e6) to dose all five million people in your city, about twice that much for Zanamivir. For the US to similarly dose New York City, it would cost .03% of the national budget.

The more economic plan is precisely what they're doing: closing borders, shutting schools and nonessential government services down, trying to get as many people off the streets as possible while avoiding a major uproar at all costs (wouldn't looting suck at a time like this?).

I'm digressing. Anyway, I think these guys might be able to sell you facemasks, which I think would be a great idea. They're local to you, too. Procuring antivirals will be more difficult, and you'll likely have to call a bunch of local private hospitals and pharmacies who will have been fielding your sort of panicked calls all day. Personally, I'd wait on that step. While you can use the drugs as prophylactics, I think that's hardly the right thing to do given the demand for the drug and the probability (at this point) that any of your crew will get infected if they wash their hands and wear masks in public.
posted by The White Hat at 7:27 PM on April 28

Most viriii are not exactly equipped for a long journey on their own. In the biochem world, a 40% ethanol solution is the most common sanitizing solution (it doesn't get better if you make it more concentrated) but, really, most virii will not last long against any common cleaning chemical you pick.

I'm not sure how durable this virus is, but it is likely to be transmitted person to person or through recently handled items. If someone is infected, you are unlikely to get the virus a month later by handling something they handled. Everyone washing their hands regularly with soap and hot water and not coming to work if you are sick are the big prevention behaviors. For surface contamination, I'd look at things that many people are likely to be handling regularly; door knobs, the coffee pot handle, that sort of thing.

Thus far, this flu doesn't seem any worse than any other flu that comes around. That said, the no mention in the news flu that made the rounds last year killed thousands of people. You're not going to be able to turn your office into an level 4 containment lab. In the long run, you'll do the most good if you get people to think about what they do that's likely to spread illness and improve their habits, even a little bit.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:44 AM on April 29

It sounds to me as it a good part of your problem is staff perception. People are concerned, and perhaps rightly so. I would recommend you keep everyone posted about procedures, what's been done, what you expect from them, where they can go to get answers or a quick check if they think they've been infected, etc., as more information rather than less usually calms people down. The shops I've worked in are 24/7 with all kinds of people in and out all the time. Even if some people are working from home, can you limit access to just those actually working there and keep visitors and delivery people out? Even a large plastic bag to wrap up your own keyboard and mouse at the end of a shift might help as it's assurance that your things are clean. Telephones and other hard surfaces can be a problem for shared work stations. Alcohol wipes before/after every shift? Non-latex gloves? Masks for those who want them? My point is: a routine and information that provides reassurance without disrupting your business might help create calm. Oh - and a big sign in the washrooms that says "Wash your hands." I wish you luck.
posted by x46 at 4:00 AM on April 29

In the news today, Obama says schools may be shut down for a while. I have to ask you, do you think he's over-reacting, or would be doing that for nothing? Think about having the workers that can work from home. This exponentially reduces risk.
posted by xammerboy at 9:10 AM on April 29

I'd like to 2nd what The Light Fantastic said about making it possible for employees to work from home. The sooner your company can make it feasible, make it "ok" in terms of everyone knowing they won't be in trouble for staying home if they're sick, and that they will be if they come in sick, the safer you will be. It's got to OK for someone to work from home so they don't come in despite being sick because they feel like they can't afford not to.

On a side note, it's interesting to see zanamavir in the news. I participated in a study for that several years ago. I guess it passed...
posted by altcountryman at 7:10 PM on April 30

Just a quick update: Thank you all for your concern and valuable information. Surprisingly (to me at least), Guatemala was left relatively unscathed from this pandemic; there have been no reports of anyone from work being infected by the virus, let alone fatalities.

We followed your suggestions as best we could; sanitizers are everywhere in the building, but working from home? Not in this culture. Also, a few weeks after my question the Guatemalan Ministry of Health made a big fuss of how they stocked up on the antivirals, which allayed some of our fears... but I still don't trust those guys.

And now there's of course a vaccine, and as far as I can tell no one from work has wanted to get one, since so few people are being diagnosed with the flu (in the city, at least).

So, thanks everyone. Hope you weathered the pandemic just fine.
posted by papafrita at 6:09 PM on November 24