Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions
Measures can be taken to reduce one's personal risk and the risk of transmitting the flu virus. These include voluntary household isolation and quarantine, social distancing, widespread adoption of respiratory hygience and hand washing, and targeted use of antiviral medications. These are summarized in the table below.
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Personal Habits |
Disinfection |
Social Distancing |
|---|---|---|
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Practice appropriate handwashing or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer before eating, drinking, touching the face or coming in contact with germs |
Utilize and wash eating utensils, dishes, and linens separately |
If infected, avoid hugging or other forms of intimate contact with individuals
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Cover mouth & nose with tissue, arm or elbow when sneeze or cough |
Clean fomites and hard-surfaces with registered antimicrobial products in infected homes Antimicrobial products include: Lysol, Square, Burmishine Germicidal Solution, Zep Refresh II. A more comprehensive list can be found at this link Antimicrobial Products Registered for Use Against Influenza A Virus on Hard Surfaces |
Limit contact with infected individuals, vice versa |
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Dispose of used tissues appropriately |
Wear a facemask if infected and have to be in close proximity with uninfected individuals Wear an N95 respirator if uninfected, but have contact with individuals infected with a pandemic strain |
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"Based on an influenza-associated mortality rate of 0.5% (as has been estimated for New York City in the 1918–1919 pandemic), the magnitude of the predicted benefit of these interventions is a reduction from 49% to 27% in the proportion of the population who become ill in the first year of the pandemic, which would correspond to 16,000 fewer deaths in a city the size of Hong Kong (6.8 million people)" (Wu et al.: Reducing the impact of the next influenza pandemic using household-based public health interventions. Plos Medicine, 2006;3(9).
Research by Haber et al. (2007) supported the findings of Wu et al. and also showed that limited contact among infected individuals in long-term care facilities "decreased the rates of illness, hospitalization, and death for long-term care facility residents by >50% …. decreased the rates of hospitalization and death in the general population by up to 14% and 24% respectively"
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