Yup, it’s that time of year again. Teachers and students are starting to drop
like flies from the flu and, from what I’m hearing from colleagues, from norovirus
as well. While this is never a good time
of year for trying to stay healthy, this year seems particularly bad with the
H1N1 strain of the flu being a seriously unpleasant version and norovirus being
even worse. Not only do I want to keep
the children in my care and my staff healthy, but quite frankly, I don’t want
to bring either of these illnesses home to my family either.
That said, how do we keep everyone healthy? It boils down to two main strategies; cleanliness
and avoiding infecting others by staying home if you do get sick.
Earlier today, I was reading an interesting article about a
potential norovirus outbreak in an elder care facility. One of the administrators observed that,
while staff are diligent about handwashing, the residents are not always able
to maintain the same level of attentiveness.
I see that problem as being extremely pertinent to us. We can have the best
hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfecting, but if we don’t spend just as much time ensuring that the children wash
their hands, it could all be for naught.
Not only do we need to make sure that they wash their hands at the
appropriate times, we need to make sure that they wash them correctly. (a friend used to threaten to record me
saying “with soap” so that we could just play it back for my sons instead of me
saying it over and over)
Good handwashing practices, properly covering coughs and
sneezes, and diligent cleaning and sanitizing will go a long way in keeping
everyone healthy this year. And, if you
have chosen to not use bleach as a disinfectant, make sure that
you check the FDA’s list of disinfectants that kill the norovirus. This is one tough, nasty bug.
Misty
