Flu Fighters
|  Video
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| Retha Colclasure |
| 11/2/2009 |
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| You`re probably washing your hands and using sanitizers until your skin is raw to stay healthy. And it`s not just individuals who worry about the flu. Employers are concerned about it as well. After all, if too many people get sick at the same time, it can be difficult to keep things running at the office. There are 28 employees at State Radio, who answer 911 calls for almost half of the counties in the state. They also run dispatch for the Highway Patrol. When residents of 22 counties in North Dakota call 911, someone here answers. "We have 28 dispatchers back here in State Radio, all of them are critical personnel," says Mike Lynk, the director of state radio. "So we cannot be missing a large number of staff." Normally, there are seven people working every 12-hour shift, and there have to be at least five. "If we get below five we have to call someone in off the other shift," says Lynk. "As we reduce those numbers on the other shift then we get everybody tired and they may get sick just because they`re run down." Something the Department of Emergency Services needs to prevent at all costs, because every person here is vital. "We`ve gone through some guidelines, we looked at early on what the flu season, traditional flu season and the H1N1 might do," Lynk says. With estimates that 30 percent of any workforce could be affected by H1N1, and another five to 15 percent affected by seasonal flu, the numbers were too high to just chance not getting sick. So the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, and several other state departments handed out these flu fighter kits. "We did the flu fighter kits that have the wipes in them, the sanitizing disinfectant for their hands, put up signs in the restrooms be sure to wash their hands," says Lynk. And then, they`re told to wipe down all hard surfaces they touch, making sure phones and keyboards don`t pass on germs to the next shift. It`s not just measures inside the building to keep employees healthy. They`re reminded before they even enter to stay home if they`re sick. "I can`t afford to have my staff back there come in when they`re sick and get everybody else sick," Lynk says. He says so far, although a few employees have come down with the flu, the preventive measures have been very effective. Right now, there have been 1,577 flu cases identified in the state. Last year at this time, there were three. And flu season usually peaks in the state in February or March. |
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