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Boston to businesses: Don't penalize workers for staying home with the flu

Barbara Ferrer: Boston public-health director.Barbara Ferrer: Boston public-health director.The city Public Health Commission is attempting to convince local businesses to not penalize workers who stay home for seven days either because they have the flu or they have to care for kids with it.

Barbara Ferrer, commission director, said seven days is the period required to ensure people are no longer infectious. "We really have asked the business community to help us with this," she said at a city-council hearing this morning called by Councilor Chuck Turner.

Also, she said, businesses need to trust their workers that they or their kids were sick, rather than forcing them to get notes from their doctors - because the medical system would be "doubled up" filling out all those notes.

Monica Hallas, a lawyer with Greater Boston Legal Services and the Massachusetts Paid Leave Coaltion, said this is a particular problem because some 40% of Massachusetts workers do not get a single paid sick day. She added, "The cost of presenteeism [workers showing up sick] far exceeds the cost of abstenteeism." A bill now in the legislature, S.688, would require employers to let workers earn sick days.

Also, while emergency-room visits due to suspected flu cases have seen "a sustained dip" in recent days, Ferrer said the city remains concerned about potential outbreaks in summer camps and programs - and in the fall, when kids return to school, she said, adding that East Boston has been particularly hard hit by H1N1.

"Keeping sick children out of summer camps is really critical at this point," she said.

Ferrer said Boston remains in the grip of swine-flu outbreak, although ER visits due to suspected flu has dropped in recent days.

Ferrer said that between April 15 and June 15, city emergency rooms saw 3,900 visits from people with flu-like symptoms - compared to 1,688 visits between Jan. 7 and March 8. She said almost half of all Boston public schools have now had at least one H1N1 case. She said public-health and school officials will only close a school if large numbers of students and staff report flu-like symptoms. To date, she said, 19 public and private schools have been shut for a week due to suspected swine-flu infection.

Ferrer said in Boston, 85% of H1N1 cases are in people under 40 - and 60% in people under 18. She added those are similar to national numbers.

Ferrer added that while most closed schools re-opened in good shape, some schools, for example, the Umana Middle School in East Boston, continue to report absences due to flu-like illnesses. She speculated this might be because many Umana students have siblings who attend schools in other neighborhoods - which might still be having their own low-grade outbreaks.

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