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It seems that interest in and concern about pandemic planning has recently been waning, in spite of the fact that most experts consider a pandemic not an "if" but a "when" scenario. With everything else on our plates, it's easy to understand how pandemic planning can get left behind. Perhaps we can re-invigorate our planning by remembering that the usual flu season is coming up and that many of the plans for pandemics can be useful in keeping things running in a plain old flu epidemic as well.

Here's what one expert sees businesses doing today to prepare for a pandemic situation. (Item #1) One size doesn't fit all: for businesses, preparation and planning for an influenza pandemic is a special-case exercise of business continuity. (Item #2) Early use of non-pharmaceutical measures, such as isolating the sick and banning public gatherings, saved lives in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. (Item #3)

If you'd like to know what resources your state has available for pandemic planning, this web page may help. (Item #4) The Canadian occupational health & safety agency offers tips for employers. (Item #5) Is your IT organization actively planning for the challenges of a pandemic? (Item #6) This week, we have a 7th item… a pdf of a 10-point program for pandemic planning that you can download from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy; filling out a very brief form is required to download.

As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, please email me at [email protected]

Best Regards,

Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp

Quote of the Week

"Pandemic preparedness is a slog.
It's not just climbing a mountain; it's climbing a mountain range.
It takes time."
- Peter Sandman, Risk Communication expert -

Articles

1. Pandemic Influenza, Business and Benefits of 360 Degrees of Preparedness
No expert knows when or how bad the next pandemic will be, but they are recommending we do things today to prepare for the next pandemic event. Many people are just now beginning to understand that a pandemic is a world-wide outbreak, affecting communities, states, and continents within very short periods of time.
http://www.ifma.org/daily_articles/2007/jan/01_16.cfm

2. Strategic pandemic planning for business: one size does not fit all
Dan Dorman, Continuity Manager for DHL, highlights one area of pandemic planning which he feels has not yet received much attention: strategy. Industries and individual businesses lie somewhere on a spectrum of societal criticality but for pandemic preparation, and you will need to consider this in developing an appropriate strategy.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0331.htm

3. Study says non-drug measures helped in 1918 flu pandemic
Cities that reacted quickly to the pandemic with combinations of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) generally had lower peak death rates and total deaths than cities that acted more slowly and used fewer precautions, according to the report by researchers from the University of Michigan and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/aug1307nonpharm.html

4. State-by-state information from PandemicFlu.gov
On this page, you will find links to pandemic planning information, pandemic Web site information, and local contacts for many states. Simply click on the state in the map to go to a page containing a great deal of helpful pandemic flu planning information and resources. There's a "workplace planning" tab for each state as well with business-specific information.
http://www.pandemicflu.gov/whereyoulive/index.html

5. Five Ways a Business Can Help Their Employees
From Canada's occupational health agency, these tips will help protect the employees and the business in the event of a pandemic - or even during the upcoming winter flu season.
http://www.ccohs.ca/pandemic/documents/5ways.html

6. Pandemic Planning Not At Fever Pitch
The CDC's IT department is planning for a pandemic, but many more IT organizations don't appear to be ready if a pandemic should hit. The Gartner Group has recommended that IT professionals prepare a pandemic response plan now.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=298413&pageNumber=1

7. Free 10-Point Framework for Pandemic Influenza Business Preparedness
You have to provide just a bit of information to download this document from CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy). The framework, which is intended to serve as a guideline to trigger business planning activities, is an original document produced by CIDRAP staff and reviewed by 19 business professionals representing a wide spectrum of industry sectors and relevant job functions.
http://cidrapsource.com/register/do/framework