What can churches do to help prevent the spread of the flu virus?
A. Prevention includes good personal hygiene, especially the single-use and disposal of tissues when coughing or sneezing and frequent hand-washing. Hands may be washed using soap and water or an alcohol rub with a minimum alcohol content of 60%. To protect others, anyone with symptoms should stay at home and minimise contact with others until symptoms have resolved. To help to prevent the spread of the virus, churches need to ensure that lidded bins for the disposal of tissues are available at all public gatherings, that surfaces are frequently cleaned and that hand-washing facilities, including disposable towels, are well maintained. Churches should also consider supplying tissues at services and other meetings as well as providing hand-washing gel. Information regarding pandemic flu should be effectively disseminated to congregations. While good hand hygiene will minimise the risks of the virus being transmitted by hand-shaking, this is not always practicable. In such circumstances,
