Note: Since so many of you are out on Friday, we’ll be back on Tuesday. Have a great holiday weekend!
If an employee tests positive for measles, you should be ready for health department involvement almost immediately. Their first step is often to request proof of immunity for any employees who may have been exposed. Traditionally, unvaccinated or undocumented employees will be excluded from work for the full 21-day incubation period unless they get the MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure. But during this recent measles surge, we’re finding many health departments take a more lax approach and only ask to be notified if other employees develop symptoms.
You should be prepped for an on-site health inspection immediately after hearing from the health department (or a measles-positive employee). They may also publicly announce your business as an exposure site in order to alert the community, often within hours of confirmation. There's a good reason for that – people who were exposed can get vaccinated within 3 days to help prevent infection. Health departments may also request timeclock records, employee schedules, and sometimes even guest information from the infectious period. Before sharing patron information, loop in your crisis or legal team so they can establish a process for handling calls or complaints, although we’re not hearing of or seeing much concern from guests.
Health departments move fast when measles is involved, because of how contagious it is, but it’s not the same type of PR crisis that it once might have been. Being prepared with a clear plan will help you respond smoothly if your business is named. Chat with a clinical team member in the ZHH app and check out our detailed, step-by-step action plan for measles positive employees for more info.
Although we never really know how the flu season will shape up, we know it often follows patterns from the Southern Hemisphere (whose winter corresponds to our summer). Unfortunately, it’s been a bad year for flu in Australia, especially at the start of their flu season.
Flu vaccine uptake is lower than it has been in years, especially in kindergarteners starting school. Last year, only about 46% of adults got the flu shot, which is down from nearly 52% back in 2019. As fewer people get flu shots, the impact of respiratory virus season on employers will likely continue to rise, with more missed shifts and higher healthcare costs.
All that said, flu activity is very low right now in the U.S., with just slight upticks in kids that are going back to school. It’s too soon to guess how severe this flu season will be, or how well our shots will match the circulating strains of flu, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on cases over the next few months. For those who do want a flu shot, we generally recommend that you get yours by Halloween.
Sources: CDC, Guardian, KFF, NIH
Texas declared its measles outbreak officially over, after 42 days passed without a new case. They found that vaccine-hesitant communities might benefit from free treatment centers and smaller, neighborhood vaccination clinics: