With 25,288 confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) as of June 8, the threat of a serious outbreak has not disappeared, says pandemic expert Dr. Maurice A. Ramirez. He recommends offering a "flu benefit" and says employers should prepare for having 30 percent of their workers unavailable because of flu.
The pandemic flu session will focus on industry approaches toward interactions with FDA, and the latest biochemical methods for the development of vaccines.
The study further showed that patients do not know what CPR really involves, which may affect a patient's choice about whether to have 'do not resuscitate' orders if they are dying.
In response to the need for expanded monitoring and reporting of health care-associated infections (HAIs), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) recently announced its support for the use of automated surveillance technologies in the health care setting as an essential part of infection prevention and control activities. The recommendations are published in the APIC position paper, "The Importance of Surveillance Technologies in the Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs)."
According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, a new congressional mandate changing hospital reimbursement made by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could inadvertently reverse tremendous progress in reducing the use of physical restraints among hospitalized elderly patients.
The Food and Drug Administration has received 23 reports of serious health problems ranging from jaundice and elevated liver enzymes, an indicator of potential liver injury, to liver damage requiring liver transplant. One death due to liver failure has been reported.
The economy, the state of U.S. public health, and workers' interest in better living have combined to make wellness incentives hot this year.
For many organizations, buying automated external defibrillators (AEDs) is the purchase of a bigticket item. For most consumers, a car is a big-ticket item. But buying AEDs is not at all like buying cars, where the effort ends when you park it in your garage for the first time. From then on, all you need to do is drive it around and put oil in it.
Whatever can you do to get a handle on safety? Specifically, to prevent injuries to fingers, wrists, hands, and arms that are common to many industries, especially where people use hand tools, assemble, work on machines, lift, load, cut, push, pull, and more?
Since the publication of our first article ("Vision Testing: A Blind Spot in Occupational Safety," February 2009, page 47), we have been asked many questions, and most people wanted references to the research data.
Workers often don't file for hearing loss compensation until they retire. But with workers staying in the workforce longer, will the compensation bill eventually be larger? There are ways to prevent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), even for those workers who may already have some level of hearing impairment.
'World No Tobacco Day 2009' on May 31 is the occasion for a campaign to make packaging more alarming, to warn smokers and potential smokers more directly.
A May 28 conference co-sponsored by the California Department of Public Health looked at sustainable farming and ecologically friendly pest control, along with health impacts of pesticide use.
The intent of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act and its accompanying regulations is to help prevent exposure to lead-based paint by requiring disclosure and notification of actual and potential hazards when selling or leasing housing.
The standard will require hospitals, health and correctional facilities, EMS, homeless shelters, labs, and others to develop control measures to lower employees' risk of infection.