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With the scare that has gripped the world with bird flu, SARS, and most recently, a man traveling on a flight to Canada with multiple chemically resistant tuberculosis, we are reminded that the workplace is a place where infections can occur. It is also a very small world.
Bird flu is spread to humans. Fortunately, it usually only affects those who are directly working with poultry. Should we have a worldwide epidemic "pandemic", then many more than poultry workers would be affected. This is the reason that when we are consulting with corporations regarding preparation for the pandemic, we usually include having antiviral medications available for employees, for prevention.
In reality, what is more of a threat to the working population is the potential of infections from infected blood.
AIDS, Hepatitis B & C
These diseases are spread by infectious blood. They are most commonly spread by sexual contact and blood transfusions. If an employee has an open cut or sore on the skin and is exposed to infected blood, it is theoretically possible to get infected with a one of these viral illnesses. We do have vaccinations against hepatitis B, which are often given to those who routinely work with blood and blood products.
Workplace Exposures
Unless one is working as a health care worker, it is unlikely that most Canadian workers are going to be exposed, on a daily basis, to blood-borne diseases. But if a worker is badly cut on the job, he or she could expose coworkers who assist to blood-borne pathogens.
First responders
Most large factories have people who are trained to know how to deal with blood exposures when they are first to go help a fellow worker. If you are untrained and do respond to an injured coworker, this is what to look for:
- If you see blood-soaked material from an injured co-worker, do not pick it up, call for clean up
- If you see a needle, do not pick it up with your bare hands, call for help
- If a fellow worker is injured and bleeding give him or her a clean towel or other clean cloth to apply pressure to the injured part and call for help
- If a fellow worker has sores that are draining any kind of pus or other infectious looking fluids, try not to make direct skin contact with them, get them to the medical facility
- If your skin is intact (no cuts) you are unlikely to get infected with diseases of the skin from a co-worker just by casual contact or contact with equipment the worker has also touched
Even in small companies, make sure there is someone who has been trained in how to use gloves, red bags for contaminated material, eye wash, etc.
TB
And what about tuberculosis? There are several forms of tuberculosis, which is mostly an infectious disease of the lungs. Many forms can be treated but there are certain types that are resistant to almost all medication that we have available at this time. If a fellow employee has an ongoing cough, has a relative with a similar cough, has just returned from foreign travel to the country where TB is very common, it may be time to ask the employee to be checked by his or her physician. There are skin tests that we can do to tell us if anyone on the workforce has been exposed to TB. For those of us who have been vaccinated with the BCG vaccine (which was common here in Canada 40 years ago), we use x-rays to rule out tuberculosis.
If you read on the Internet about many infectious diseases, I guarantee you will not get sleep tonight. Some of them are very scary. Fortunately, if you have a healthy body, you can often eliminate the potential of getting sick from an infectious disease even if all your coworkers have the disease. Obviously, eating right, not smoking, exercising regularly, and getting sufficient rest are all important ways to help keep your body healthy.
Please let us know if we at WMC can help keep you and your employees healthy with preventive measures, or help your employees get back to work quicker if they have been ill or injured.
Craig Karpilow MD FACOEM
Medical Director – WMC Occupational Medicine
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