It'll soon be the most vilified time of the year for managers all over the country: flu season. The nasty bug tends to strike when the weather is coolest, plunging offices into a short-staffed state of disarray. Flu shots, however, can stop a large proportion of the annual mayhem, and educating employees about the benefits of the jab can make a major difference.
Because influenza is largely an airborne disease, unvaccinated teams in the workplace can become infected with flu very easily. In a closely packed environment, staying healthy is important; proper self-care practices can mean the difference between a lively workforce and a skeleton crew.
Thankfully, there's an easy way to prevent a considerable portion of influenza cases. If staff members get flu shots, many of them will be protected against the most prevalent influenza strains. Each year, scientists from various organizations, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), create a new flu shot based on the influenza strains likely to be most prevalent during the season.
In recent years, you've probably heard a lot about particular types of flu virus, including the so-called swine flu and bird flu strains. Over the last hundred years, several flu pandemics have caused severe illness and death in a large number of countries. The Spanish flu epidemic of 1918–1920 was truly a global event, killing 50 to 100 million people around the world. In 1957 and 1958, Asian flu, a category-two pandemic that started in China, caused roughly 69,800 deaths in the United States alone.
Modern pandemics have been less serious, mainly because of newly developed vaccines. In 2009, an H1N1 swine-flu outbreak began in Mexico and quickly turned into a regional epidemic. Despite local authorities' efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, it reached pandemic proportions by June of the same year. Although, thankfully, antivirals were available to treat the disease, this severe variant nevertheless caused widespread serious illness, particularly in less-developed areas.
According to recent advice from vaccine scientists, flu shots are safe for pregnant women and younger children too. Staying healthy doesn't have to be tough or expensive, either. As well as being available at free clinics, flu shots are offered at pharmacies all over the country at a minimal cost. You might not even have to leave your vehicle: in some areas, motorists in a hurry can visit convenient drive-through flu-shot clinics for a jab on the fly. Vaccines for people with egg allergies are now also available.
Influenza season is fast approaching, so make sure you remind your staff about the importance of annual flu shots before they end up falling victim to the virus. Researchers, who consistently test flu vaccinations before making them available to the public, are now more convinced than ever that flu shots are safe for nearly everyone.
(Photo courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net)
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