Remember that in a phase 4 or more status, that effective risk communication may be our most important tool to manage the demand for health care. In my professional opinion it is important for officials to promote and assist good risk communication now, so that when it is critically needed in a pandemic the trust and credibility will be present.
CSIRO workers exposed to bird flu
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=69451#post69451
The lab or papers, or somebody clearly wants to say that yes there was an incident but there is nothing to worry about.
What we have are two newspapers reporting on an incident but neither one providing data that is convincing to reassure.
It will be helpful for a public health official or a lab official to walk through what happened and when.
Both papers report that workers were ?exposed.? For simplicity let?s assume they are in a situation similar to someone who has been in close contact with a person with H5N1 influenza. In such a as situation the persons exposed would be place in quarantine and probably offered prophylactic antiviral therapy with Tamiflu.
We are told that one worker is released from quarantine and thus we conclude all three workers were in quarantine. But how long should quarantine be? Longer that the suspected incubation period for H5N1 to cause illness. Thus we expect a minimum of 4 days of quarantine then if completely health (no symptoms, no physical or laboratory evidence of infection) then the all clear.
Unfortunately we do not know when the exposure occurred, for how long, nor do we know neither the duration of quarantine nor other protective measures that may have been taken.
We can encourage lab and government officials to hone communication skills now while it is still less stressful than a phase 5 or 6 scenario.
Still nothing on the CISRO web site.
http://www.csiro.au/
Thornton
CSIRO workers exposed to bird flu
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=69451#post69451
The lab or papers, or somebody clearly wants to say that yes there was an incident but there is nothing to worry about.
What we have are two newspapers reporting on an incident but neither one providing data that is convincing to reassure.
It will be helpful for a public health official or a lab official to walk through what happened and when.
Both papers report that workers were ?exposed.? For simplicity let?s assume they are in a situation similar to someone who has been in close contact with a person with H5N1 influenza. In such a as situation the persons exposed would be place in quarantine and probably offered prophylactic antiviral therapy with Tamiflu.
We are told that one worker is released from quarantine and thus we conclude all three workers were in quarantine. But how long should quarantine be? Longer that the suspected incubation period for H5N1 to cause illness. Thus we expect a minimum of 4 days of quarantine then if completely health (no symptoms, no physical or laboratory evidence of infection) then the all clear.
Unfortunately we do not know when the exposure occurred, for how long, nor do we know neither the duration of quarantine nor other protective measures that may have been taken.
We can encourage lab and government officials to hone communication skills now while it is still less stressful than a phase 5 or 6 scenario.
Still nothing on the CISRO web site.
http://www.csiro.au/
Thornton