Download Cold and Flu Season is Coming 12-11

Cold and flu season is coming. Are you ready?
Get out the disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. Make sure those soap dispensers are filled. While it’s
difficult to avoid the shivering misery of cold and flu season, preventing even one cold or case of the flu
is worth the effort. The flu alone costs employers $76.7 million each year in absenteeism, presenteeism
(meaning when employees come to work but are not fully productive due to physical and/or emotional
distractions like being ill), and other indirect costs.1 And the workplace is one of the worst culprits for
spreading disease and bacteria…On average, you’ll find 400 times more bacteria on top of your office
desk than on a toilet seat.2
The first step to keeping your workforce healthy this cold and flu season is to encourage your employees
to get vaccinated against the flu. Frequent hand-washing helps too, but the best way to protect yourself
is to get vaccinated each year. Flu activity is low right now, so it’s the perfect time to get vaccinated,
since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for your body to develop an immune response.3
Other things you can do to fight the spread of disease at work include2:
 Provide disinfecting wipes. Encourage employees to wipe down their work stations, especially
shared resources like telephones.
 Hand out hand sanitizer. Between hand-washings, this is the best way to kill the germs and
viruses that make people sick.
 Wipe down door knobs and handles frequently. Commonly touched surfaces efficiently pass
disease from one person to the next.
 Clean up the kitchen. Replace kitchen sponges or washrags at least once a week, or invest in a
dishwasher.
For more information about preventing the cold or flu outbreaks, see www.anthem.com/timewellspent.
There you’ll find informative articles and colorful break room posters. You can also find free resources
from the CDC at www.cdc.gov/flu.
Sources:
1
US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, The annual impact of seasonal influenza in the US:
measuring disease burden and costs (June 28, 2007): ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
2
Bray, Illona, Health employees, healthy business: Easy, affordable ways to promote workplace wellness (2009):
nolo.com
3
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Seasonal Influenza (Flu) (accessed November 22, 2011): cdc.gov
This information is brought to you through collaboration between your chamber, NOACC and Anthem
Blue Cross and Blue Shield.