Wednesday, August 3rd at 3pm ET
Join us for a 30 minute flash briefing to discuss what employers need to know about monkeypox. We’ll cover what steps you need to take to keep the impact on your business to a minimum. Register here.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
The extreme heatwave that’s been affecting much of the country can have serious health risks, including heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Managers should ensure that working conditions are safe, and monitor employees for signs of heat illness, like dizziness, confusion, nausea, or if they stop sweating despite the heat. Make sure staff have shade, water, and somewhere to take a break from the heat, especially if they’re working outside or in a hot kitchen.
The polio case in New York is a very strange confluence of factors. First, the person who got sick is not vaccinated. Anyone who is vaccinated against polio should be protected from the virus. Second, the unvaccinated person was exposed to someone who was vaccinated outside the US. Here, we use a vaccine that doesn’t contain any live virus - so there’s no risk of getting polio from anyone vaccinated in the US. But some countries still use the version that contains some live polio virus, and in rare cases, an unvaccinated person can get sick after being exposed to someone who was recently vaccinated with that live-virus vaccine. That’s part of why we don’t use it in the US anymore. It’s another great example of why it’s so important to ensure that you and your family are fully vaccinated against all standard diseases. We’re likely to see more flukes like this after childhood vaccination rates have dropped since COVID.
Informing coworkers is not necessary nor recommended. Contact tracing is not required since there is very, very low likelihood of workplace transmission at this time. Only those who are dating or living with the sick person need to be excluded from work. Protecting the employee’s privacy is the key issue. You should have a policy not to discuss one employee’s private health status with any others.
Generally, someone with confirmed monkeypox will be out of work for 2-3 weeks. To return to work, we require (and recommend that you require) a doctors’ note, 24 hours fever-free and all sores fully crusted over before they return to work. In most cases, the health department or doctor treating a person with confirmed monkeypox will give them clear instructions about when they can end their isolation period and that appears to be 21 days from onset.
NY Times: How to Live With Covid When You Are Tired of Living With Covid
Experts are warning that a 'twindemic' of COVID and the flu might finally be upon us this coming fall. So far, we in the US have been able to avoid this, but with flu cases already rising in July, and COVID cases surging again, health experts are worried we will be following in Australia and New Zealand's footsteps straight to a twindemic.
The key is simple: make sure no employee works sick.
If you don't have an employee health monitoring program, now is a great time to start. And you can help prevent a 'twindemic' from hitting your business hard by providing a flu shot and/or COVID booster program for your employees. Keeping employees (and customers!) healthy is not just good practice, it protects your bottom line.
Learn more about starting a program by scheduling a 15 minute chat with us here.