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This site will be updated as new H1N1 or "Swine" Flu information becomes available. Check back frequently. Employees, please direct your visitors or any other inquiries you may receive to this Web page for updated H1N1 influenza information.
Latest News
With the start of the 2009/2010 academic school year and the flu season approaching, Aerojet’s leadership team is continuing to monitor the status of the H1N1 and seasonal flus. This e-mail is the continuation in a series of communications designed to keep Aerojet employees apprised of evolving CDC guidelines and recommendations for flu prevention and to inform employees of any specific Aerojet actions needed to prevent the spread of flu at our worksites. You can stay informed by accessing the Aerojet H1N1 Web site for direct links to the CDC, WHO and your community public health departments.
Confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu continue to escalate across the United States and throughout the world. While no one is yet sure how widespread this flu may become, it is extremely important for all employees to remain cautious and diligent to keep you and your families healthy.
Medical care professionals are able to test for the H1N1 flu. If you are diagnosed, there are antiviral prescription medicines available from your health care professional that are designed to fight against influenza viruses, including the H1N1 flu. These drugs are used to treat the H1N1 virus and/or to prevent infections associated with the flu.
A government-directed vaccine program is currently underway. While the vaccine is now in production, the release date has not yet been finalized so it is very important to take all necessary steps to protect your health. The CDC Web site recommends the following:
- 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 hand cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
- Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
If you are sick with flu-like illness, the CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.
Individuals who have been diagnosed with the H1N1 flu are contagious from one day prior to the appearance of symptoms to up to five – seven days after symptoms have appeared. This signifies the importance of staying home if you are feeling any ill effects from the flu. Aerojet is asking employees who are well but who have an ill family member at home with the H1N1 flu to come to work as usual, unless the employee is the designated care provider for the ill family member such as a child, spouse or parent. If you have been exposed to someone with flu-like symptoms, you should monitor your health every day, notify your supervisor and stay home if you become ill. The CDC recommends that people with an underlying medical condition or who may be pregnant call their health care provider for advice, because they might need to receive influenza antiviral drugs to prevent illnesses.
‘Flu-like symptoms’ is a term used to describe both H1N1 and seasonal flu symptoms and include: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with the H1N1 virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting.
- Stay at your work location.
- Minimize your contact with co-workers when you become aware of flu-like symptoms.
- Call your supervisor.
- You will be asked to go home as soon as possible when it has been verified that you feel well enough to drive yourself. If you are too ill to drive, your family will be contacted to assist with driving you home.
Aerojet emergency medical response system should be activated if the ill person develops any of the emergency warning signs such as difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, confusion or severe vomiting.
Stay home, rest, follow the CDC recommendation for seeking treatment and get well. To reduce the spread of the H1N1 flu, it is important that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.).
In addition, to ensure a safe work place, Aerojet requests that all employees who have been ill with H1N1 or flu-like-symptoms please call your Health Services or Human Resources department before returning to work. Below are the contact numbers by location for employees to call:
- For California locations, (to include Sacramento, Vernon and Woodland Hills), please contact Health Services, Sacramento: 916.355.5050
- Employees in the Socorro, NM; Huntsville, AL; Washington D.C. or other satellite offices can also contact Health Services at 916.355.5050
- Gainesville and Orange, VA - Health Services Virginia: 540.854.2264
- Clearfield, UT - Health Services Virginia: 540.854.2264
- Camden, AR - Health Services Arkansas: 870.574.3258
- Redmond, WA - Human Resources: 425.533.4512
- Jonesborough, TN - Human Resources: 423.753.1394
For those of you with children in schools across all Aerojet sites, it is likely that school districts in every state are posting H1N1-relevant information on each school’s respective Web site. Be sure to check the Web sites frequently.
More information is available from the CDC’s Web site http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm.
Elizabeth Zacharias
Vice-President, Human Resources
Chris Conley
Vice-President, Environmental Health and Safety
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