Preparing Workplace for Pandemic H1N1

Although Pandemic H1N1 is in its cool phase atleast in the news, but we need to prepare for the 2nd wave of infection which is much expected.

ILO has produce a Guidance and Action Manual that can be adopted by any organisation for the above purpose.

AOEMM SEMINAR : Influenza A H1N1 Pandemic

Just back from KL via Flight AK 5218 landed at 9:50 pm, delayed almost 20 minutes due to some technical problem. Impressed with safety measures done in the flight with the pilot went out discussed the technical problem with the engineer. After clearance and given green light to fly by the engineer, the pilot announced the good news to the passenger.

I went to KL on Sunday night to attend today Seminar on Influenza A H1n1 Pandemic: Pragmatic Approaches for the workplace organised by Academy of Occupational & Envrionmental Medicine, Malaysia (AOEMM) at Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel.

The seminar started with the Keynote address on Situation Report on Influenza A H1N1/09 in Malaysia - What to expect in time to come by Dr Sirajuddin Hashim, Sr. Principal Assistant Director Diseases Control Division, Ministry of Health.

7 Lectures were delivered by expert as follows:

1. Mitigation Phase : Actions taken by MOH and Role of Private Medical Services Provider by Dr Priya Ragunath from MOH.

2. Clinical Presentation and Management of Influenza A H1n1 : The Malaysian Experience by Dr Suresh Kumar, Consultant Infectioius Disease Physician, Sungai Buloh Hospital

3. Health Care Wokers - The Appropriate Protective Measures in the Healthcare Facility by Ms Josephine Xavier, Sime Darby Medical Centre

4. Influenza Pandemic: ILO Training Material on Workplace Action by Dr Zalina from DOSH

5. Recommended Preventive Actions to be taken in the workplace - the Role of Employers & Employees by Dr Abed onn, Medical Director GE

6. Business Continutiy Plan : What Works by Dr Khatijah Jumangat from Infineon Technologies

7. Risk Perception and Risk Communication during the Current H1N1 Pandemic by Prof. Dr KG Rampal of UKM

I will post some new informations from each of the lectures later....

MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE - Noise

This past few weeks I am really busy analysing audiometric results of employees from 2 of our corporate clients. Analysing the audiometric results is very time consuming and painful especially if you dont have the previous result in hand. Lucky for me as I have created the audiometry surveillance database for me to keep the data of my clients so that I can compare their current audiometric results with the previous one. This is important especially if we want to determine the occurence of standard threshold shift (STS).

After the analysis done, the reports need to be revealed to the workers as well as their employer. Advising the employer on the important of implementing the Hearing Conservation Program is very important. Nonetheless, educating the employee on the risk of noise to their hearing and the important of wearing Hearing Protective devices is very challenging.

Generally, the findings will be classified into 3 categories:

1. Normal Hearing

2. Hearing Impairment

3. Noise Induced Hearing loss (hearing loss at high frequency 3 Khz - 6 Khz or typical 4 Khz notching).

The category 2 & 3, need to be notified to DOSH. Here is the problem start to emerge, some employers look scary and try to argue about the findings.

My advice to them will be:

Implement the Comprehensive Hearing Conservation Program and DOSH will be pleased with your effort.

Note: The above picture was captured from my humble database created using Filemaker Pro