Kaleo San Diego Church

Kaleo is blessed to have a certified infection control practitioner in our congregation who recently offered excellent prevention advice to our congregation regarding our current pandemic status. These prevention measures are particularly important considering pregnant women and newborn or young children.

1. Anyone with symptoms of influenza like illness (fever >100.4 + cough or sore throat) should stay home from group activities for 7 days.

2. Anyone who has had known contact with a person who was diagnosed with influenza should stay home from group activities.

3. Perform hand washing frequently using liquid soap and water or alcohol gel. 20 - 25 seconds of scrubbing is effective.

4. Encourage cough etiquette. This includes coughing into your sleeve (not your hand) if you do not have tissues. If you have tissues they should be used once and thrown away, then wash your hands immediately.

The reason for international concern and for a World Health Organization (WHO) level 5 pandemic alert is that this is a novel influenza virus. Humans have never seen it before and therefore we have absolutely no immunity. The 1918 pandemic had an initial wave of mild influenza illness that moved on to cause 50,000,000 deaths. As novel viruses mix in humans there is potential for more serious illness and larger scale death rates. So, limiting spread is of utmost importance at this point.

Here are some excerpts from a speech given by WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan: "Let me remind you. New diseases are, by definition, poorly understood. Influenza viruses are notorious for their rapid mutation and unpredictable behaviour..." "It is possible that the full clinical spectrum of this disease goes from mild illness to severe disease. We need to continue to monitor the evolution of the situation to get the specific information and data we need to answer this question."

All of the recommending and regulatory agencies agree that limiting transmission is the way to help prevent this. Please refer to the following sites for accurate information. We want to remain calm but smart.

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

http://www.who.int/en/