Emergency Crews Not Immune from the Flu

Emergency response crews in Knoxville, Tennessee, are learning that emergency response crews aren’t immune from the flu, as some of the departments have seen an increase in employees calling in sick.

According to an article by Allison Hunt on the volunteer.com website, many of the area’s emergency response organizations, including the fire department, have seen an upswing in the amount of employees calling in sick.

“Mostly flu like symptoms is what appears to be the number one thing,” Brent Seymour of the Knoxville Fire Department told Hunt. “It’s not uncommon for us to pick up some of the illnesses as we’re out dealing with the emergency response we deal with every day. It is an unusually high amount of persons that actually called in sick.”

Hunt says Rural/Metro has experienced a similar problem this flu season, with an average of four employees calling in sick each day.

“It’s not normal, it’s an increase in number of people calling off during a shift, but we are able to fill those slots and maintain staffing on the roads,” John Brinkley with Rural/Metro told Hunt. “Some of them do have flu-like symptoms; others are calling off because of their children being sick or spouse being sick.”

How are the agencies dealing with the issue? For one, Hunt says Rural/Metro gave 200 employees flu shots in November, and is encouraging all employees to wash their hands.