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H1N1 Concerns Best Handled Through Appropriate Hygiene

Summer is over. School has begun! The roads are crowded with busses again. Kids have traded their swim trunks for backpacks and pencil cases. Along with this return to seriousness and studiousness comes a return to assemblies, hand shakes, high fives, and lunchroom antics. In each case, the return to school is accompanied, this year, by a return of the H1N1 virus, which is virulently seeking any opportunity it can find to replicate and multiply itself.

When children congregate, and spread disease amongst each other, they return home to infect their parents, their parents' coworkers, and their extended families. This is the normal progression of disease, and in a typical year, fighting this progression is prioritized. However, this year, this fight is the top priority. H1N1 has the potential to be a particularly virulent strain of disease, and has shown a tendency to be uncharacteristically destructive in young populations.

Official projections indicate that as much as half of the population of the United States could acquire the disease, overcrowding hospitals and killing upwards of 90,000 people. Government officials consider 159 million people in the United States to be especially susceptible to the disease: pregnant women; children ages 6 months through age 24; emergency & health care workers, and those in the general population with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes, or cancer. Despite this high number of people who should be inoculated, only 45 million doses of vaccine will be available by October.

For this reason, authorities are highly concerned with taking every step that might help mitigate the effects of this disease in the population. Schools are already on the defensive, sending children home at the first signs of sickness, stressing hygiene education and effective hand washing techniques. Ideally, these measures will be effective in preventing the virus' spread, and the flu season will pass without incident.

The only way for this to happen is by extreme vigilance in every corner of the population. Schools are vulnerable, and in most cases, they are doing their part to minimize the effects of this flu. But these venerable efforts will only be effective if businesses, churches, and civic institutions do their part to take the same steps that schools have taken.

Employees must be re-educated on the importance of proper hygiene, and reminded of the proper ways to achieve this. Churches and other areas of social interaction must provide and promote alcohol based hand sanitizers to congregants.

Turn to Action Unlimited Resources for all of your flu prevention needs. We offer a broad line of soap and sanitizer products, as well as disinfectant cleaners to keep areas germ free. Additionally, we are happy to announce that our Action Academy will be including in our September course (Restroom care/Tile & Grout) a "cleaning for health & safety" element. Instructor Bob Seibel will provide a plethora of information on how best to maintain a clean and safe personal environment.

Overall, the responsibility to keep H1N1 at bay lies with each of us, and only by doing our singular parts collectively can we hope to prevent this disease from becoming a highly deadly global pandemic. In order to do so, it is important that businesses and all places with public traffic take every possible step, and maintain every precaution in preventing the disease.