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Annual fit-testing is once again the unqualified rule for tuberculosis. A Congressional caveat that prohibited the U.S. Occupational Safety and Administration from using federal funds to enforce the annual fit-testing rule for TB has been defeated in the House of Representatives.
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Updated guidelines designed to prevent nosocomial transmission of diseases inject some new uncertainties in the efforts to protect health care workers.
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Hospitals are feeling even greater pressure to ask health care workers to sign declination statements if they don't receive the influenza vaccine.
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Concerned that occupational health and safety research is getting short shrift from the Bush administration, professional organizations are calling for a study of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and a commitment to boosting its financial resources.
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A new checklist for pandemic influenza planning emphasizes the role of occupational health to manage absenteeism, symptom surveillance, and personnel needs.
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Listless, fatigued, emotionally drained. Employees are dragging themselves to work despite a bout of depression. And while they may not see much hope that they will feel better, you should.
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Patients in intensive care units are more likely to develop serious and possibly deadly infections if units were understaffed and nurses worked more overtime.
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Switching from the skin test to the blood test can completely change the profile of your tuberculosis screening program, as many TB-positive employees suddenly learn that they are not infected.
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Andrew Speaker causes an international incident by getting on an airplane although he has been diagnosed with active XDR-TB (extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis) — and asked not to travel.
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Better-fitting respirators are on the horizon. Newly proposed criteria will require manufacturers to prove that their N95 filtering facepiece respirators meet a minimal level of fit -- right out of the box.