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Preparing For Pandemic Influenza — A Roadmap To Help Ensure Business Continuity For Your Organization
August 4, 2010
•Article: Preparing For Pandemic Influenza — A Roadmap To Help Ensure Business Continuity For Your Organization
By Sprint Nextel
As we near the next decade of the 21st century, public and private safety issues continue to take precedence. From the threat of terrorist attacks and natural disasters like floods and hurricanes to the specter of global warming or a pandemic illness outbreak, agencies at all levels should plan to preserve the greatest level of continuity of operations.
At the forefront of current business continuity efforts lies disaster recovery planning for, and preparation against, a pandemic outbreak of influenza, be it H1N1, bird flu or some yet-to-be-identified strain of this illness. Common, seasonal influenza already accounts for some 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations per year in the U.S., and up to 500,000 deaths worldwide.1 The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that even a moderate outbreak of the more deadly avian flu could affect 30% of the U.S. population, and a severe pandemic could result in 1.9 million deaths.2 And the CDC predicts that with as many as 25%-30% of the U.S. population potentially affected by a pandemic caused by this virus, there would be a financial and operational impact on American business. A significant part of the workforce (more than 30%) could possibly be affected at any given point in time, which could translate into potential financial losses in excess of 170 billion dollars.3 And by June 19, 2009, all 50 states in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands had reported novel H1N1 infection4 , making the threat of pandemic flu even more immediate.
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