An employee of DuPont Washington Works recently developed symptoms determined to be a mild case of swine flu.

"The symptoms were actually very similar to seasonal flu," says David Doering, Personnel and Training Superintendent. "And while we take the H1N1 virus very seriously, we are thankful that it was like the seasonal flu."

That mild flu case became more of a reason the company's 1500 employees have been reminded to use hand sanitizer more frequently, It's alsowhy the company has stepped up its efforts to keep its workplaces virus-free.

"We've increased our janitorial services to disinfect surfaces, to do extra cleaning," Doering says. "We've had extra signage in our lavatories to enhance hand washing. And we change the signage every week to keep it fresh, so that people remember to wash their hands and to sanitize."

DuPont took its swine flu guidelines from the bird flu concerns of a few years ago. Restaurants, like the Belrock Diner in Belpre, also took their anti-flu guidelines from a recent illness scare.

"With the E-Coli outbreak a few years back, we started washing all our produce down real good," says owner Steve Null. "Historically, people in a restaurant are very healthy because they always wash their hands. We wipe the doors and the chairs down throughout the day, and nightly, everything is wiped down."

Null adds the restaurant buys from a supplier who has made sure its produce is sanitized before it has been sold.