Combating Flu Epidemics Likely to Take More Than Vaccines

(CDC.gov)

Researchers at MIT urge public health policy makers to rely on more than just vaccines to control future flu epidemics. Richard Larson and Stan Finkelstein of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division make their recommendations in this month’s issue of the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (paid subscription required).

Larson and Finkelstein (who is also an associate professor at Harvard Medical School) note that an influenza pandemic can overwhelm hospitals, clinics, nursing facilities, and emergency services to care for the spike in cases, particularly during the time vaccine production ramps up to meet the demand. Most of the individuals who are stricken will probably be cared for at home, and the authors note that in-home care givers would likely run a risk themselves of becoming infected.

To help find better ways of dealing with this type of emergency, Larson and Finkelstein reviewed scientific literature published after the year 2000 to identify steps that in-home care givers can take to reduce the chances that they and other household members will become infected in the home. Their review covered 40 studies of non-pharmaceutical interventions and identified approaches they found demonstrated the ability to reduce the transmission of flu viruses:

• Washing hands thoroughly after leaving a patient’s room. This means scrubbing with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer for 20 to 30 seconds — about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
• Wearing a mask. There’s no hard evidence that masks themselves block airborne viruses, but wearing a mask makes it difficult to transmit viruses on the hands to one’s nose or mouth.
• Installing air filters. High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters can remove nearly 98 percent of virus particles. Portable air purifiers can also help remove virus particles, as well as pointing a window fan out the window of the sickroom.
• Controlling temperature and humidity. Higher temperatures and humidity levels can kill or disable viruses.
• Installing an ultraviolet (UV) light, which is antimicrobial. Portable air purifiers with both UV lamps and HEPA filters can be purchased for $180 to $370.

Larson and Finkelstein calculate the rate of of a flu spreading by multiplying the number of face-to-face contacts that an infected person has in a day times the probability that the infection will spread from the infected person to a susceptible person. The authors say this rate can be reduced both by minimizing the number of contacts a sick person has and by taking the precautions outlined in their paper.

“It’s not going to reduce the risk to zero,” says Larson. “But we feel confident that [the risk reduction is] significant, if the majority of these steps are taken.”

Read more: National Lab, University to Certify Flu Screening Machine

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