clinical focus
What impact does that have on the spread of influenza?
It’s hard to say. The probable effect would be that the outbreak
would go unrecognised for much longer and there may be larger
numbers of people who get infected, and timely prophylaxis with
Tamiflu may not occur. That could lead to secondary infections
and further complications of pre-existing conditions if influenza
isn’t nipped in the bud or dealt with a soon as possible.
and residents is also an important strategy to reduce the spread
of influenza. [Facilities] also must ensure that staff are equipped to
manage outbreaks and are able to recognise them as they occur.
We could also strengthen the relationship between the public
health units and the aged-care facilities.
How important is that relationship?
There’s probably no way of confirming that unless the data’s
examined in a critical way, and also if we expanded our study to
other health districts. I imagine a similar pattern would probably
be found in other health districts, but that’s an assumption and still
needs to be investigated through an expanded study.
Public health units’ role is to provide support and assistance with
procuring Tamiflu in a timely manner. It’s fairly important that
units work closely with aged-care facilities during an outbreak
announcement, because we can mobilise resources quickly. We
can also liaise with the office of the chief health officer to get
Tamiflu across quickly, because there might be some delays in the
aged-care facility providing it within the 48-hour window during
which it has to be [issued] in order to be effective.
What should be done to reduce the spread of influenza or
address some of these figures?
What other messages would you like to send to the leaders of
aged-care facilities and staff about influenza outbreaks?
What we have done so far to reduce the spread of influenza is to
send out an influenza outbreak preparedness checklist. We did
it last year and we intend to do it again this year. The checklist
is designed to look at what measures are in place to ensure
that aged-care facilities are equipped to deal with an influenza
outbreak as soon as it occurs. It’s about things like availability of
Tamiflu prophylaxis and swabs to do the testing, and also whether
they have an infection control policy in place. Vaccination of staff
We would recommend annual vaccinations for residents and staff,
including casual workers. Ensure that infection control protocols are
in place, and also that staff are educated on outbreak management
and recognition. It is also important to take some time to fill out the
influenza outbreak preparedness checklists, which we’re going to be
sending out shortly, because we’d like to report on those results. We
also plan to report on the results of last year’s survey when we send
out the questionnaire this year. n
Would you expect to see similar findings across other
health districts?
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