1. -- From the City Website.
The Park Ridge city website has put up a link to information from the Center for Disease Control, about the Swine Influenza (Flu). PRUdos to the city web master!
The information includes a section titled "What You Can Do to Stay Healthy" with reminders --
There are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
- Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
- If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
And because the PRU Crew likes graphic illustrations --
-- warning, not for the squeamish!
PSA from the Government of South Australia
2. -- City Council COW tonight!
Tonight's council COW agenda (.pdf) is packed with all kinds of fun things! The documents posted for review on the city's website includes a water & other cash funds memo (.pdf) -- the PRU Crew found page 6 to be very interesting.
As usual we hope to have a recap of tonight's meeting for readers tomorrow. We all may want to keep a box of tissue handy.
20 comments:
watch out for Frimark tonight. it's his LAST meeting to oversee. I am afraid of what he might try to push through.
PRU, thanks for putting up the cdc information and the video warning. I don't think of myself as squeamish but I was still grossed out.
Tonight the District 64 school board will be voting on 21 recommendations, some of which will have a huge impact on the budget. Go to the district webpage for more information:
http://www.d64.org/site/files/bd_rep_4_27_09.pdf
Thanks, Anonymous April 27, 2009 11:30 AM.
Don't look now, folks, but the D-64 budget is $10 million higher than the city's, and it also looks like they're increasing their spending.
Pru, I hope you don't mind me posting this. I just got it in an email from District 64.
Update on Swine Flu
To All District 64 Families:
As you know, the federal Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has declared a health emergency in the U.S. as a precautionary measure due to the recent outbreak of swine flu.
In response to this alert, District 64 is following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH).
In coming days, we expect to receive additional advice from these agencies as the full impact of the swine flu outbreak is better known. We will do our best to keep you informed of these recommendations regarding safe procedures in schools. District 64 also has added a page on the District 64 Web site (under “Health & Educational Services”) with information on the flu and tips that you can follow to help prevent its spread.
At present, we are asking parents to follow these recommendations from the CCDPH:
1. To seek medical attention for yourself or your child with symptoms including fever greater than 100 degrees, body aches, cough, sore throat and respiratory congestion.
2. To prevent the spread of respiratory viral infections in general:
a) An ill adult or child should stay home from work or school to avoid spreading illness to co-workers, classmates, and friends.
b) All persons should always cough or sneeze into their elbow or into a tissue and properly dispose of used tissues.
c) All persons should wash their hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer to kill germs on hands and avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth.
Effective immediately, we ask that all families take the following additional steps:
1. When you call in to report your child’s absence from school, please be specific about the nature of your child’s illness by reporting all symptoms as described above.
2. Please consider enclosing a hand sanitizer wipe in your child’s lunch or backpack so that he/she can cleanse his/her hands before eating. We ask that you review its proper use and disposal with your child.
3. Be prepared to react promptly to a call from school if your child becomes ill with a fever above 100 degrees during the school day and must be sent home.
District 64 also is e-mailing similar information today to staff members at our schools.
Health officials do not yet know whether this outbreak will cease to be an issue or become a greater concern. We are committed to sharing new information and instructions on safe procedures for schools with you as they become available.
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions.
Sally Pryor, Superintendent
Margaret Petkofski, Facilitator, School Health Services
36000 people die every year from the flu. We have never received any emails or automated phone calls on that from D64 or D207. The media is doing a great job of creating a panic. Nice job.
I will be the last person to stand up and applaud the quality of our media. They all pick a side and report accordingly. Having said that, the WHO has said some pretty newsworthy things (you can debate the accuracy). Mexico city, with a population of about 20 mil has virtually shut down. What are you suggesting - that they do not cover it???
Second, I think D64 sharing any information is positive. There is no such thing as too much. I get "green sheets" about students in my kids class with strep on a regular basis.
By the way, I am not in a panic.
I agree. The media is creating a frenzy.
So? What happened at the COW?
Anon@5:10 --
PRU.ADMIN is doing other things today, but hopes to get something written before midnight.
Apologies to all from the Crew.
Streets flood and water mains break all over the country.Police stations are built and renovated in many neighboring towns. The blogs are doing a great job of creating a panic. Nice job.
Anon@8:36 --
You do have the option of not reading the blogs if you object to the content. You also have the option of starting your own blog if you believe you would provide better content.
Don't let the cyber door hit you in the ass as you exit.
Anonymous Nice job Apr. 28 --
Your comment of 9:13am was far more worthy of consideration than your latest and totally worthless comment of 8:36pm -- maybe the cocktail hour isn't your friend, and so your latest comment will be ignored.
In consideration of your comment of this morning, we believe it is prudent for local government bodies to take seriously the concerns expressed by the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, both of which have declared this topic an elevated level of public health concern.
The Crew is not populated with highly trained medical personnel, however we do have some collective knowledge which tells us that outbreaks of new, never before seen virus strains are cause for great concern given the ability of viruses to rapidly change, and this swine flu strain's ability to be transmitted from human to human.
Also, the potential is great for an epidemic and pandemic. This means a great number of people could become sick at the same time, overwhelming medical facilities and medical personnel should there be no precautions taken to stem the spread. This would exacerbate the problems of what has proven in Mexico to be a deadly strain of the virus.
I will not discuss the worst case scenarios the doomsday sayers have such a good time pondering. However, as you yourself noted the CDC estimates that an average of 36,000 people die each year from the regular human influenza virus. That is approximately .11% of the people who get the flu each year, calculated with an average of flu sufferers at 10% of the population during "flu season."
In the event of a full blown epidemic or pandemic, the numbers could be much higher, and the ability and resources to fight the infection and treat the infection far more strained and limited.
It hardly seems unworthy of consideration, in the face of a potentially crippling or deadly virus outbreak, to remind people of a few of Grandma's constant refrains -- wash your hands! cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze! -- and the more delicately phrased don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth, which really means stop picking your nose!But maybe, Anonymouse 9:13, these cautions against ignorance of these personal hygene habits cause you some measure of personal discomfort or even panic.
Best of luck to you.
PRU-don't go off on me. I am anon 9:13 am and I posted nothing at 8:36 pm today. Don't know what you are talking about.
That being said-the WHO deals with issues of the world, including hundreds of third world countries with horrible, unsanitary living conditions and terrible health care. These are hardly the conditions in the US. It seems to me that they are creating a panic when the news spends 5 minutes on this matter, D64 and D207 send out info etc when all they need to say is wash your hands often and keep them away from your face.
Any updates on the D64 meeting? I could not find anything on the website.
Anon@10:56 --
PRU.ADMIN rarely goes off, but you may want to buy a seat to such an event.
O.k., now that you've established that the WHO is dealing with the bloody third world where the babies just come with the secenery, what say you of the CDC?
My god.....it is information!! What is wrong with sharing information. Again I ask the question are you saying they should not report what WHO and CDC have said?? Unfortunately an infant in Texas passed away yesterday. The president made some comments this morning suggesting/urging that schools in areas where there are outbreaks may what to consider closing. He talked about parents thinking about child care back up plans.
This is information that the public needs to know yet you, with I assume no medical training, look at it as creating a panic.
This is very important. This is a new virus and we have no vaccines that are effective at treating it. As another poster already stated, 36,000 people die every year from the influenza that we can treat! This is one we can't. FYI, that 36,000 number, it's much lower than the what the medical community reports....
"This is a new virus and we have no vaccines that are effective at treating it."
Hummmm last time I checked vaccines were for the prevention of disease not for treating it once you have it.
anon 5:43:
hmmmmmmmmmm right back at ya! If there were vaccines,those of us who do not have swine flu could have already had shots that (in theroy) would prevent us from getting the it and limit the spread and consequences.
During the past 8 years, the federal government has so de-funded, debased and degraded the agencies charged with protecting the public -- starting with providing the public with MEDICALLY ACCURATE information and ending with stopping the sale of toxic schlock -- that the public ignores most of the warnings it gets from Uncle Sam. I am a very minor member of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team)and I believe the average citizen should take more heed, not less, when self-care info is provided. It would be negligent in the extreme if the schools didn't put the word out. Now, if there were only adequate child care provisions for emergencies where parents in embattled jobs could....oops, dreaming again.
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