EDITORIAL: Handwashing Not HAZMAT

ST Joseph’s High School in Aberdeen issued a note to parents yesterday, advising one of their teachers had holidayed in China and while they had not shown any flu like symptoms, or been to the outbreak area, they will have two days off school to meet the 14 day requirement implemented in the catholic school system.

The school’s response was extra precautious, but sensible and I was in no way concerned. My daughter goes to St Joseph’s and spoke to me about it, to which I responded, “you are going to school! And it’s like any other day: wash your hands before you eat and practice basic infection control.” I’ve drilled infection control into my children since they were toddlers and sometimes they get it right. (See end of story for basic procedures.)

But imagine for a moment that the new corona virus was to infect 135,952 Australians and kill more than 1,163 people. What would you do to protect yourself from the disease? What would you do to stop the spread?

Well, just half way through 2019 the flu HAD infected 135,952 Australians and in 2017 it DID kill 1,163. But still public health pleas to practice infection control and stop the spread, is widely ignored each year. 

In Scone, there ARE people who die from the flu! Hopefully we won’t have any deaths relating to this particular strain, but there WILL be more deaths with common flu strains. Typically, it is the most vulnerable people in our community who have suppressed immune systems, such as our elderly. But every year the flu and gastro bugs enter our nursing homes and hospitals. And how does it enter? By people who have even mild symptoms going to visit the most vulnerable people in our community. 

It is mind blowing, but most people with the flu wander about the community everyday infecting others and causing the disease to spread. So while I trust public health to manage the new strain, I don’t trust most people in the community.

At a major hospital in Sydney with some of the most critically ill and premature babies in the state, I worked with public health on a new approach to infection control. We made large posters with a picture of a critically ill baby and another with a cancer patient stating that if people with even mild symptoms visited the hospital they could kill these patients! We didn’t prevent them from visiting, because we knew people would still sneak in. Instead, we asked them to get a mask and wash their hands before going any further. Thankfully, many people did and our infection rates dropped. But it was staggering to see how many sick people regularly visit the most vulnerable places.

And it isn’t just visiting our most vulnerable when you are sick, it’s going about your day touching fruit, the trolley or checkout at the supermarket, it’s everything you touch when you are sick that gives the disease the opportunity to spread. If everybody washed their hands regularly and took basic precautions, like not coughing on other people, or staying at home when you are sick, infection rates would plummet.

No matter how much experts plead for people to do the basics to stop the flu, people don’t, but now they want HAZMAT suits….literally!

I worked on SARS, the last flu everyone freaked out about, I was involved with counting how many negative pressure rooms there were in Sydney, their proximity to the airport, various contingencies for response, briefing media and educating the public, but the message is incredibly simple….wash your hands and practice basic infection control!

Medics assessing passengers on a plane, wearing protective HAZMAT suits.

Yesterday, I spoke with someone working in federal health on the new virus and he lamented nothing has changed since SARS, people are still literally wanting to know where they can buy a HAZMAT suit and not interested in the advice that can actually stop the spread of the disease.

So, this year I will be getting the flu vaccine again, because while I am not worried about being infected from a market in China, I am concerned about the infection control practices of people visiting my local supermarket and while I am healthy and unlikely to die from the flu, I know others in my community are not so fortunate and I want to protect them from a preventable, but deadly disease.

Please don’t freak out about the latest high profile virus and order a HAZMAT suit, be concerned about every virus already in our community and wash your hands.

Some Basic Information:

• Wash your hands for 15-20 seconds, children can use a song as a guide to how long to wash their hands. How to wash your hands: Handwashing;
• Use an alcohol-based cleanser if you can’t access hand-washing – keep one in your handbag and in the car;
• Wash your hands frequently: before eating, before handling food, after using the bathroom, when you get home etc and avoid touching your face.
• In the workplace: studies have shown using an alcohol-based cleanser when you return to your desk reduces infection – also wipe down your phone, keyboard and desk each day;
• Coughing and sneezing: can spread a virus to everything within in a 2 metre radius.
• Don’t cough into your hand and then touch things! Cough into a tissue, throw it away, then wash your hands. If you don’t have a tissue, cough into your sleeve, then wash your hands.
• Read: Cough etiquette.
• If you are unwell: Take precautions not to spread the disease: stay at home, avoid close contact with others, wash your hands and use an alcohol-based cleanser more frequently, if you are coughing and sneezing wear a mask around others people.
• Flu vaccine: We may not have a vaccine yet for this latest strain yet, but we do have vaccines specifically for the most deadly and prolific strains each year. It protects you from the virus and means you are helping to protect others in our community.

Elizabeth Flaherty

Editor, scone.com.au