The last thing we need: a drug resistant strain of swine flu is emerging from hospitals in Australia, according to BBC's News Health.
The last major outbreak of swine flu killed about 200,000 people worldwide. It did so partially by displacing other flu strains, becoming the dominant strain; that does not seem to be happening (yet) this time around. "The swine flu strain has learned how to dodge the antiviral Tamiflu and, though rare, is emerging outside of hospitals."
While janitorial best practices do relatively little to retard the spread of flu (flu mostly gets you via hand-to-hand contact, or your being in the path of a sneeze), one does what one can concerning touch point sanitation and restroom disinfection. We also try to be proactive in suggesting to our customers that they "epidemic proof" their firms: allow employees to take sick days without an often difficult to schedule doctor's visit; cross train employees so that, for instance, your HR person does not have to come in on payday, regardless of illness.
Our suggesting methods of minimizing the impact of illness on our clients goes beyond our selfless desire to benefit mankind; consider that if the client's entire staff gets sick, no-one is around to cut us our check.
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