CDC Public Health Emergency Update: Health Alert Notice

[Guest guest]

Dear

Colleagues,

Below

please find  a recent notice from CDC on advice regarding separation of persons

with H1N1 from work and school environments, in anticipation of an upsurge of

the influenza in the fall cold and flu season.

As

critical providers of primary healthcare you may find this to be helpful

information as you plan your policies and response to the probability that your

centers will encounter the influenza among either or both your patient and

employee populations.

Bobbi

Ryder

Bobbi Ryder

President & CEO

National Center for Farmworker Health, Inc.

1770 FM 967

Buda, TX

(512) 312-5453 direct line

(512) 312-5451 Mendoza , Assistant

(512) 312-2600

www.ncfh.org

From: Centers for Disease

Control & Prevention [mailto:cdc@...]

Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 8:55 AM

ryder@...

Subject: CDC Public Health Emergency Update: Health Alert Notice

DEPARTMENT

OF HEALTH & HUMAN

SERVICES Public

Health Service

Centers

for Disease Control

And

Prevention (CDC)

Atlanta, GA

30333

This notice is about the exclusion period, or the amount of

time persons should be away from others if they have Novel H1N1 Influenza.

You

are signed up to receive American Red Cross updates from CDC's Community

Health Outreach & Education Team (CHET). CHET is part of

CDC’s Emergency Communication System – an all-hazards response unit

with resources and structures to provide emergency information through appropriate

channels to multiple audiences across the country.

Please read

the important public health information below and send to your constituency as

you see fit.

This is an

official

CDC Health

Advisory

Distributed via Health Alert

Network

Month dd, 20yy,

13:51 EDT (01:51 PM EDT)

CDCHAN-00XXX-yy-mm-dd-ADV-N

CDC Updates

Recommendations for the Amount of Time Persons with Influenza-Like Illness

should be Away from Others

On August 5, 2009, CDC changed its recommendation related to the

amount of time people with influenza-like illness should stay away from others

(the exclusion period). New guidance indicates that people with influenza-like

illness should stay home for at least 24 hours after their fever is gone

(without the use of fever-reducing medicine). A fever is defined as having a

temperature of 100° Fahrenheit or 37.8° Celsius or greater.

This is a change from the previous recommendation that ill persons

stay home for 7 days after illness onset or until 24 hours after the resolution

of symptoms, whichever was longer. 

The new recommendation applies to camps, schools, businesses, mass

gatherings, and other community settings where the majority of people are not

at increased risk for influenza complications.  CDC

recommends this exclusion period regardless of whether or not antiviral

medications are used. This

guidance does not apply to health care settings where the exclusion

period continues

to be for 7 days from symptom onset or until 24 hours after the resolution of

symptoms, whichever is longer. (See http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidelines_infection_control.htm

for guidance on infection control in health care settings.) 

Decisions about extending the exclusion period should be made at

the community level, in conjunction with local and state health officials. More

stringent guidelines and longer

periods of exclusion – for example, until complete resolution of all

symptoms – may be considered for people returning to a setting where high

numbers of high-risk people may be exposed.

This exclusion period guidance for the community setting is based

on epidemiologic data about the overall risk of severe illness and death. The

new recommendation attempts to balance the risks of acquiring illness from

influenza and the potential benefits of decreasing transmission through the

exclusion of ill persons with the goal of minimizing social disruption.  This guidance will

continue to be updated as more information becomes available. 

To

read the complete revised guidance see:    http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/exclusion.htm

This

change in our recommendation has affected content on a number of other pages,

including the following:

Visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance_homecare.htm for more

information on caring for sick persons in the home.

Visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm questions

and answers about H1N1 influenza.

For

more general information on H1N1, go to http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Categories of Health Alert messages:

Health Alert           conveys the highest level of

importance; warrants immediate action or attention.

Health Advisory    provides important information for a

specific incident or situation; may not require immediate action.

Health Update       provides updated information regarding

an incident or situation; unlikely to require immediate action.

##This Message

was distributed to State and Local Health

Officers, Public Information Officers, Epidemiologists and HAN Coordinators as

well as Clinician organizations##

====================================================

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contained within our emergency notification data base. If you have a different

or additional e-mail or fax address that you would like us to use please contact your

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department.

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