H1N1 Outbreak Affected 1% of Medical Center’s Staff; Most Came to Work Anyway

Nearly half of the healthcare workers in one New York City tertiary care center who exhibited influenzalike illnesses during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak tested positive for influenza, representing nearly 1% of the medical center’s employees, according to a study in the August 2013 Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. That season’s influenza outbreak took place in two primary waves during June and November 2009. The majority (61%) of cases in the medical center took place during the first wave of the outbreak; workers in those cases were more likely to have been exposed to patients’ respiratory secretions than workers in the second wave.