Pandemics

Several  new or updated documents that have recently been posted on-line by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are of particular interest to employers planning for response to the H1N1 pandemic:

On July 16, the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health released the results of the most recent of a series of national polls that focused on Americans' views and concerns about the potential for a more severe outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) in the fall or winter. The most recent polling was done June 22-28, 2009.  Approximately six in ten Americans (59%) believe it is very or somewhat likely that there will be widespread cases of Influenza A (H1N1) with people getting very sick this coming fall or winter.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Pandemic on June 11, 2009, 76 global organizations gathered at an International SOS Pandemic Planning seminar. A synopsis of the event chaired by leading virology expert, Professor John Oxford, was provided to ORC by International SOS. (See attachment below.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the pandemic alert to Phase 6.  Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5 . Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

A major concern for employers during times of communicable disease outbreak is how best to protect their people.  Loss of essential personnel to illness can have a devastating impact on business.  In most cases, it is not practical to prevent exposure to airborne viruses or bacteria by having employees work at home, nor can employers identify and isolate people who may be infected, but not yet manifesting symptoms, before they can infect others.  It therefore becomes necessary to provide employees with both the guidance and the means for maintaining health in the workplace.

In April 2009, businesses, schools, governments, health organizations, and individuals across the globe were focused on the potentially devastating spread of the Influenza A H1N1 virus. While the virus has proven to be, at least at the time of this writing, less severe than originally thought just a few weeks earlier ORC believes there is value in examining and learning from the collective company responses during one of the more critical weeks of the virus’s evolution.

ORC has gathered for your convenience a number of important sites that you should monitor regularly for updates on the 2009 Influenza A H1N1 flu outbreak.

United States Pandemic Flu Site: http://www.pandemicflu.gov

World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Center for Disease Control and Prevention: http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/swineflu/

During the past two years, ORC has been working with county health departments in California to encourage business participation in the CDC Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI). This is a federally funded program to prepare major U.S cities to effectively respond to a large scale public health emergency within a short time frame. There has been increased interest generated in this program due to the recent swine flu outbreak.