Let employees stay home sick, US tells businesses

* Encourage sick employees to stay home, government says

* Employers should push vaccination and hand hygiene

* Employee cross-training key in case of absences

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 - Businesses should encourage employees to stay home sick at the first symptom of swine flu and should drop requirements for doctor's excuses during flu season, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Employers should also encourage vaccination against both seasonal and H1N1 swine flu, the officials said.

"If an employee stays home sick, it is not only the best thing for his health, but it is also the best thing for his co-workers," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told a news conference.

Requirements to get a doctor's note to validate illness should be waived, Locke said. "It has the potential to overload the healthcare system that is likely to be stressed during this year's flu season," he said.

The new H1N1 influenza virus has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, according to the World Health Organization. When the northern hemisphere's autumn weather sets in it is expected to worsen.

In releasing official federal government guidance on influenza for businesses, Locke and other Cabinet secretaries also urged a little education about hygiene and vaccination.

"Vaccine, we know, is one of the best strategies, to immunize the population against this new flu strain. So getting employees prepared to receive a vaccine is important," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. "We hope that employers will do some outreach to employees."

Another is teaching and encouraging employees to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer, she said.

People need to learn to use a sleeve or an arm to cover their coughs, not a hand, and Sebelius asked businesses to take a lead on encouraging this, as well as keeping work surfaces clean so the virus does not spread from tables or telephones.

CROSS-TRAINING

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano encouraged cross-training to make sure important work goes forward even if employees are sick, especially in "critical infrastructure" businesses such as utilities. "We are now asking the business community to be proactive and do some planning too," she said.

Although most cases are mild to moderate, H1N1 appears to be about as deadly as seasonal flu, which kills about 36,000 people a year in the United States and 250,000 to 500,000 globally.

But the new H1N1 affects younger people more than seasonal flu and the majority of the population has no immunity. WHO predicts 2 billion people will be infected in a short two-year period -- which could raise the overall number of deaths over an average flu season.

U.S. officials have issued guidance for vaccinations and for schools at http://www.flu.gov. Healthcare workers, pregnant women and people with chronic diseases such as asthma should get immunized first as the H1N1 vaccine becomes available.

Five companies are making both seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines for the U.S. market -- AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, CSL, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA.

HHS says 45 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be on hand in mid-October, when mass vaccination is planned.

HHS has also bought 84 million courses of Roche AG and Gilead Sciences's Tamiflu and Glaxo's and Biota's Relenza, antiviral drugs used to treat flu, with 100 million treatment courses to be available in the autumn.