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Current hot topic...
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
...Is of course, swine fever.
So I will add here, what I added elsewhere:
I attended a Government programme of 'Health & Safety at Work' yesterday, as our premise is changing from a mere delicatessen to one also housing an Italian Bistro-eaterie, so I have to have a certificate of food hygiene.
It's really very simple.
The best and most effective way of preventing the spread of harmful bacteria either to food, or to another person, is to wash hands and to cover mouth when coughing or sneezing.
Stand at least a metre away from anyone in public whilst talking to them, and if you see they're about to cough or sneeze, turn away....
And I have to mention it here:
In a recent survey carried out in local business premises (of all kinds)* the following question was asked:
Do you wash your hands every time, after using the lavatory?
Women - 87% said yes. 5 % said infrequently. 8% said never.
Men - 4% said yes. 8% said infrequently 88% said never.
Gentlemen:
Wash - your - hands - !!! :rant:
And in every bathroom everywhere (particularly in premises where cooking takes place), the loo flush-handle, light switch and sink taps should also be wiped with an anti-bacterial cleanser.
It's easy, it's quick, it's effective.
(* this was a total number of just over 17,000 people).
Look after yourselves.
:om: :wavey:
So I will add here, what I added elsewhere:
I attended a Government programme of 'Health & Safety at Work' yesterday, as our premise is changing from a mere delicatessen to one also housing an Italian Bistro-eaterie, so I have to have a certificate of food hygiene.
It's really very simple.
The best and most effective way of preventing the spread of harmful bacteria either to food, or to another person, is to wash hands and to cover mouth when coughing or sneezing.
Stand at least a metre away from anyone in public whilst talking to them, and if you see they're about to cough or sneeze, turn away....
And I have to mention it here:
In a recent survey carried out in local business premises (of all kinds)* the following question was asked:
Do you wash your hands every time, after using the lavatory?
Women - 87% said yes. 5 % said infrequently. 8% said never.
Men - 4% said yes. 8% said infrequently 88% said never.
Gentlemen:
Wash - your - hands - !!! :rant:
And in every bathroom everywhere (particularly in premises where cooking takes place), the loo flush-handle, light switch and sink taps should also be wiped with an anti-bacterial cleanser.
It's easy, it's quick, it's effective.
(* this was a total number of just over 17,000 people).
Look after yourselves.
:om: :wavey:
0
Comments
The mania continues in Egypt, where though they have not had a single case of swine flu, they are putting all 300,000 pigs in the country to death. And they don't even eat pork in the first place!
1 person has died in the US; a small child if I'm not mistaken who had a series of previous health problems to begin with.
I think this is all being blown way out of proportion.
The baby who died was from Mexico, but in the USA.
Why not say "it was all blown out of proportion" when it's over, and we haven't had it....?
I take it you wash your hands every time you've been to the bathroom, or are about to prepare food....?
:winkc:
I worked with a gentleman for many years and would observe that he would come into the bathroom, wash his hands, and then proceed to use the urinal and then leave.
After a while this was really bugging me, so I had to know why he performed this strange (to me) ritual. I said "Why do you wash your hands first and not afterwards"? His answer was:
"I know where my 'equipment' has been, but I have absolutely no idea where my hands have been."
Still not a satifactory hygiene answer, but an interesting insight into the workings of some people's brains.
I knew a guy at this local bar who never washed his hands before leaving the restroom. He was a very social person around the bar. He would slap you on the back and shake your hand several times a night. Everytime he extended his hand to me, not wanting to embarass either one of us, I would just go ahead and shake it. Afterwards I would run to the restroom and really scrub my hands. My wife had always noticed my doing this and one day asked me why. (because she knows I'm obsessive compulsive when it comes to washing my hands) One day I finally told her why I did this, and she was so freaked out she would never stand near him again! I wish I had the nerve back then to say something to him!
Palzang
Palzang
I used to work in the kitchen of a small hospital and they trained and tested the hell out of us. All the time. The training never stopped. We had people coming into the kitchen to train us from various government agencies at least once a month. And it was totally great. I learned so much about food born illness, bacterial and viral illness, food handling and safety, cleanliness of everything including our shoes, arms, foreheads, and most especially our hands. They not only taught us the importance of washing our hands but how to wash them, how often, and for how long. I was constantly amazed at how incredibly simple it could be to stop a potential pandemic in its tracks by making sure everyone washed their hands when they were supposed to. Just that one simple thing.
I'm like jj5 with the hand washing. I get extremely uncomfortable and distracted when my hands feel dirty in any way so I wash my hands a lot. Certain friends and family members like to make fun of me for it and their jokes are very often hilarious and make me laugh my ass off at myself. At the same time though I still think it's the right thing to do especially when you're around a lot of people every day.
As for the coughing and sneezing, we learned at the hospital that if we can't get to the tissue box in time we should sneeze or cough into the inside of our elbows to prevent the prodigious spray of possibly contagious bacteria or viruses from landing all over the place and all over other people. We wore scrubs in the kitchen with short sleeves and so we could wash our arms immediately after using this emergency technique. We also wore latex gloves, of course, which we changed all the time.
I was working in the hospital kitchen during the SARS outbreak so we all took this training very seriously. It was wonderful training and I'm very glad to have had it and often use it to help my parents with their food prep and handling. They're getting much more careless as they get older which I understand is something that quite naturally happens to many people as they age. So knowing what to look for and what to prevent helps me keep them healthy which is great blessing for me.
And we got paid our usual wage while undergoing all those training hours. My wage there, incidentally, was the highest amount I ever got paid at any job I've ever had.
That's the place where I hurt my back.
Why am I talking so much today?
Palzang
Somebody was joking about it being inappropriate to kill pigs. Ha!
Joking aside, though, what is inappropriate is this irresponsible attitude that pokes fun at protocols and procedures developed by the World Health Organization for our protection – and would ridicule those who carry their messages.
WHO has protocols dictating which policies and procedures will be enforced at different stages of disease progression. Their aim is to coordinate the different governmental and health organizations around the world to meet this threat head-on. This entails hourly communication of disease spread, severity, treatment, etc. It requires vigilance by all citizens and heightened hygiene measures.
Influenzavirus is spread by droplets, found on surfaces and able to be suspended in air for a few minutes. Therefore, if you’re around sick people you have an increased potential to pick up some viruses and transfer them to your nasal or buccal mucosa, and thereby incubate them for further spread. The virus is not at all hardy and can easily be destroyed by any disinfectant and by soap and water. Therefore, it seems reckless and mindless not to spend a few extra seconds doing things to protect those you love by washing up a bit more.
This particular H1N1 strain of influenzavirus is new and nobody has any antibodiese to it yet except for those recently infected. Due to its ability to evade our immune system defenses, this virus is unusually virulent and unpredictable. It is only due to the praiseworthy swift actions of the Mexican health and governing authorities that remedies such as Tamiflu have so soon been put into the field to mitigate the damages of this new pathogen. Otherwise the situation would have been more lethal. The Mexican government has acted with great responsibility and foresight in this matter, unlike China during the SARS crisis.
This late-spring onset of influenza is itself remarkable, as flu is characteristically a cold-weather phenomenon. The influenzavirus typically has a butter-like capsule which preserves better in the cold.
The 1918 flu was deadly, killing about 30 million people worldwide. It was the flu itself that killed, not complications caused by it. Same thing with SARS a few years ago. WHO has been very busy over the last several years getting ready for when the Bird Flu might jump the species-transmission barrier and be readily transmissible from person to person. That day will probably come, and WHO will be indispensable in averting widespread catastrophe. Let’s not even think about what an Ebola pandemic would entail with martial law and mass graves and wholesale incineration of village and urban housing. The unwary then will either get sick or, rightfully, get shot down dead by a vigilant trooper doing his job to stop the miscreant.
Let us trust the scientists and the legitimate governmental and intergovernmental agencies and dismiss sneers as invincible ignorance. Nuff said
EXCEPT
Let's reward Mexico with our tourism business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, what was that guy's name? Make sure you put it on the terrorist watch list, OK?
Palzang
Luckily, but I still think it's better to be safe than sorry. Influenza pandemics such as the one in 1918 are serious business. And the danger isn't over, either. Like other RNA viruses, this H1N1 virus is more susceptible to mutation than DNA viruses. That means that it could easily become as virulent and deadly as the 1918 virus, which was also a type of H1N1 virus. So even though it wasn't as deadly as first thought, and people overreacted (as they tend to do when they're scared), I see nothing wrong with taking the outbreak seriously.
Without bees, we'll be in deep trouble.
Palzang
I was on a business trip to Hong Kong in 2003 when the SARS panic was on -- most visitors wore masks and it was very entertaining to watch people trying not to touch moving escalator rails, press lift buttons with a finger wrapped in a hanky, close taxi doors with their foot to avoid touching the door handles etc. And washing their hands with a small spray and wet wipe every few minutes. Sudden hygiene everywhere --
Most contagious disease scares are just speculative news fodder but I saw this morning that cholera deahs have reached 100 000 in Zimbabwe. Tragic and entirely preventable.
Mary
Palzang
HH the DL was recently in London, and gave a talk at the Royal Albert Hall, and afterwards, went into the hospitality bar with honoured guests (of which, naturally, as you would doubtless expect, I was NOT one...!
I am in no doubt whatsoever though, that he had water, with a dash of ice, hold the scotch.....:cool:
Or
You give up tooooo easy!!
Pally - I love you.