As limited amounts of the first doses of novel H1N1 vaccine were expected to reach providers in early October, hospitals placed a top priority on vaccinating health care workers who provide care to the most vulnerable patients. Even health care workers who have had flu-like symptoms and were diagnosed with novel H1N1 should receive the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Occupational medicine physicians and infection preventionists agree: It isn't a good policy to exclude "at-risk" employees from certain duties due to potential exposure to novel H1N1.
Being a nurse's aide or orderly is the most injury-prone job in America. Those aides are four times as likely to be injured on the job as the average worker, and their rate of injury tops freight haulers and handlers, and construction laborers.
Every year, the U.S. Secretary of Labor - whoever that may be - declares America's workplaces to be safer than the last. The proof: Lower injury rates reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is considering a revision to its glutaraldehyde recommended exposure limit (REL) and has issued a Federal Register notice asking for information on glutaraldehyde research, use, safety training, and manufacture.
