| Pandemic planning updates…
Hoffmann-La Roche CEO addresses California business leaders about developing pandemic plans George Abercrombie, president and chief executive officer, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., told more than 100 LA-area business leaders recently that the threat of a flu pandemic presents businesses with challenges unlike those anticipated with traditional emergency preparedness plans. "While California businesses are all too familiar with preparing for potential disasters such as earthquakes," Abercrombie said, "local businesses need to look at the special challenges posed by the potential of a public health crisis caused by a global influenza pandemic, especially those business that are unique to California, like its motion picture and tourist industries." Abercrombie, who shared details of Roche's own plans to safeguard the health of its employees and business infrastructure during a pandemic flu outbreak, says that Los Angeles' film and tourist industries should pay particular attention. In March, Trust for America's Health released a report (funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of the U.S. Pandemic Preparedness Initiative) estimating that California could lose $86.9 billion in income and trade as a result of a severe pandemic flu outbreak. The report indicates that states with high levels of tourism and entertainment could be the hardest hit. According to researchers, industries that require a high degree of social interaction, such as California's entertainment industry and state tourist sector, such as theme parks, hotels and restaurants, would likely experience the greatest decline in demand-an estimated 80 percent. "Unlike a shorter-lived natural disaster, influenza pandemics come in waves-each one lasting anywhere from four-to-12 weeks and continuing for one- to-two years," said Abercrombie. "Because officials expect that 20-to-30 percent of people will become ill, businesses must think in new ways about protecting employees and keeping critical business components running.” According to Abercrombie, while other industries are able to ask staff to work from home during a pandemic, film studios and tourist-driven businesses may not be able to exercise the same options. In fact, experts believe that many businesses and organizations would have difficulty maintaining operations as a result of an increased level of absenteeism due to illness, employees caring for the sick and social-distancing policies. Based on his experiences working with the federal government the past several years on pandemic preparedness, Abercrombie reminded the audience that the government has asked private businesses to share in the responsibility of planning. While the federal government has plans to help slow the spread of the virus among critical populations, such as healthcare workers and emergency personnel, it is up to local communities and businesses to ensure that residents and employees stay healthy and that businesses and local economies remain up and running.
As part of an ongoing relationship to sustain awareness of the threat posed by a global influenza pandemic, and to help organizations plan for business continuity during such an event, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, or CIDRAP, has signed a contract with global assistance firm International SOS to provide organizations with access to the CIDRAP Business Source Web-based subscription information service. The CIDRAP Business Source will be supplied to International SOS clients as part of the firm’s subscription-based Pandemic Information Service, or PIS. Together, the complementary CIDRAP and PIS information services will provide the single most comprehensive resource for practical information available to business, nonprofit and government leaders, to help prepare their organizations for an influenza pandemic or other widespread health emergency. “International SOS is a leading provider of medical assistance, international healthcare, security services and outsourced customer care, and we’re pleased to provide their Pandemic Information Service subscribers with the CIDRAP Business Source,” said CIDRAP Business Source Editor-in-Chief Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH. “CIDRAP is the only nonprofit organization providing this type of current, comprehensive and authoritative information.” “Access to CIDRAP’s Business Source adds value to our existing online Pandemic Information Service,” said Dr. Myles Druckman, Vice President of Medical Assistance, International SOS. “We’ll be providing our PIS subscribers with the enhanced service within the next 30 days, and we expect to see increased demand for this information over the coming months.” www.cidrap.umn.edu
In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1. Their study of 36 genomes of the virus collected from wild birds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA), and Vietnam confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or ‘reassorted,’ to create a new strain. Several samples also contained the mutation associated with the form of the ‘bird flu’ that caused several human deaths in 2006. It is the virus’s ability to rapidly mutate into a pathogen that may eventually be passed between humans that concerns health officials about a worldwide pandemic of H5N1 influenza. “This is the first time anyone’s looked at all of the H5N1 genomes in the west,” said Steven Salzberg, the study’s lead author and director of the University of Maryland Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. “Until now, the studies have been primarily on samples from the Far East. Our study shows that the virus is spreading west, and that there have been three separate introductions of H5N1 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.” The study’s researchers, an unusual team of scientists from 11 countries that range from US to Iran, collaborated to share data and sequence H5N1 samples taken from birds in a widely dispersed geographic region that includes Nigeria, Niger, Sudan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. “We found that the EMA strains of the virus are distinct from the Vietnamese and other Asian strains,” said Salzberg, “and that they have already divided into three separate new strains. One of the new strains has been the cause of several fatal human cases in Egypt and Iraq.” The research showed that the three new strains, called clades, evolved independently and in different regions from a single genetic source. “Our analysis places this source most recently in either Russia or Quinghai Province in China,” Salzberg said. The study shows that the new Euro-African lineage, which was the cause of fatal human infections in Egypt and Iraq in 2006, has been introduced at least three times into the EMA region and has split into three distinct, independently evolving lineages. Two of those sublineages have recently reassorted. “The migratory pathways of wild birds don’t correspond with the movement of the genomes that we sequenced,” said Salzberg. “Humans carry chickens between many of the countries in our study, often transporting them across great distances. That and the weak biosecurity standards in most rural areas point to human-related movement of live poultry as the source of the introduction of H5N1 in some countries.” While the study “dramatically increased the number of genomes that have been sequenced, we have to do more surveys,” Salzberg said. “It’s surprising that we found what we did with such a small sample.” Read the entire paper: http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/5/713.htm
VIGILAIR Systems, Inc. have announced the results of a study in which Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) was used to deactivate the Avian H5N1 virus, commonly referred to as the Bird Flu virus. This study was jointly funded by VIGILAIR Systems and a number of Wall Street based financial and insurance institutions that are concerned about the disruptive effects of a pandemic on business continuity. Independent laboratory test results show that UVGI effectively deactivated the H5N1 virus. The study tested UVGI's ability to deactivate the Vietnam strain of H5N1. This is the first time such testing has been performed on live H5N1 viruses, not surrogate microorganisms. UVGI is a potent germicide. When microorganisms are exposed to specific wavelengths and quantity of UV, the organism's genetic material is corrupted. These organisms are then unable to reproduce and are rendered harmless. "Pandemic preparedness is a key concern for many of our clients," said VIGILAIR Systems President Peter Bjorkman. "This testing demonstrates that our systems can be effective against the spread of H5N1." http://www.VIGILAIRSystems.com
•Date: 20th April 2007 • Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: Pandemic planning
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