Bird Flu News

New page on Bird Flu Manual Online giving you the latest Bird Flu News stories.

Pandemic Flu vs Seasonal Flu

Learn about the Pandemic Flu vs Seasonal Flu Differences in this new webpage on Bird Flu Manual Online.

Vira-Block

You can now buy your Vira-Block Hand Antiseptic directly from us. Get yours now!

Bird Flu Manual

Bird Flu Manual Adds More Content and Products

Hello all!

We at Bird Flu Manual Online are delighted to annouce the addition of new sections within the Manual, plus we are now selling products to help you get your business (and home) prepared for the coming influenza pandemic.

The first of the new sections is on face masks, or health masks as some like to call them. You can also buy N95 Masks and Triosyn Masks at great reduced prices.

We have also added a section on using Hand Antiseptic and Hand Sanitizer where you can purchase bottles of Vira-Block hand antiseptic.

But best of all in our new Pandemic Preparedness eMail eCourse Program. Sign Up for free emails taking you step-by-step through your preparedness with free tools and templates along the way.

We hope you enjoy this new information and products.

Bird Flu Manual Online.

Influenza Screening Flowchart

Check out our Influenza Screening Flowchart to minimize any false alarms and alleviate worry.

Thank you.

Terms and Conditions

We have now added Terms and Conditions to our website.

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Bird Flu Manual Online

Bird Flu eManual for Business Preparedness

Five new great pages added to Bird Flu Manual Online:

Pandemic Preparedness
Pandemic Planning
Pandemic Influenza Preparedness
Influenza Pandemic Preparedness
Emergency Callout Tree

Bird Flu Preparedness for Businesses

Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for Businesses

Look for the Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for Businesses Preparedness and Survival for everything you'll need to get your business prepared for a pandemic outbreak of influenza.

Emergency Callout Tree

Check out our new Emergency Callout Tree to help you with your pandemic preparedness.

Chen Qi - a Morning Fresh Breeze: Pandemic flu event best battled by honest communication

Chen Qi - a Morning Fresh Breeze: Pandemic flu event best battled by honest communication

Good article. Don't forget about getting business managers to prepare their businesses as well. We need to keep Bird Flu at the forefront of every business manager's mind. It won't go away so better start preparing.

Nigel Thomas
For free references and tools go to Bird Flu Manual Online or, if you need more comprehensive tutorials and templates, consider Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for business preparedness and survival.

Flu Mortality Index

You can now see how the WHO indexes the severity of the pandemic with our
Flu Index chart.

New on Bird Flu Manual Online.

Even more content!

Two more chapters to add to Bird Flu Manual Online...

Business Impact Analysis and
Business Impact Analysis Questionnaire

Don't for get our also recently added Pandemic History.

Enjoy!
Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for Business Preparedness and Survival.

Pandemics Through History

A severe pandemic of influenza has happened once in every hundred years, invariably within the first 30 years of the century, and in most cases within the first 20 years of the century. See a chart and read all about pandemic history.

Another great new chapter in Bird Flu Manual Online.

How to Prepare Your Business For Bird Flu

Ask any business manager if they’ve heard about Bird Flu and the answer is always an emphatic “Yes!”. Ask them if they have made preparations to mitigate the effects of Bird Flu on their business continuity, and very few are able to produce any viable evidence that they actually have.


The intent seems to be there. The results of a recent international survey of businesses corroborates this. The survey, carried out by Mercer Consulting (www.mercer.com/avianflu), covered 450 organizations across 38 countries and 20 industries, shows that some 17% of businesses world-wide have allocated some kind of budget towards its pandemic influenza readiness activities.


Although still very low, this is a number which has been creeping up for several years now. Even without the budget, most businesses managers are at least trying to get a set of plans together. So the question now is "What's stopping them?".


If you sift through the responses it boils down to two main reasons:


1. There's no real point, it'll be the end of life as we know it, or

2. I don't know how to prepare and don't have funding for a consultant.


The first point is fundamentally flawed. It will not be the end of life as we know it. The strain which breaks into a pandemic will not be the same as the bird-to-human one which is killing over 50% of those it infects. The human-to-human strain is far more likely to be like the 1918 pandemic strain. The 1918 influenza outbreak, considered the worst, killed about 3% of those it infected.


In number terms, losing 3% of staff over 18 months (the expected duration of the pandemic) is probably less of a loss than is the normal business staff attrition rate.


That's not to say it won't be devastaing. The staff absenteeism rate will be over 50% for lengthy periods with even healthy staff off work due to fear, home quarantine and caring for others. Within a relatively short period the hype and fear will subside as the public becomes educated and the actual fatality rate of the virus strain becomes clear.


Soon most will want to come out of isolation and try to resume a sense of normality in their lives. Governments would need to loosen controls as resources would not be able to cope for long if sustained at those initial levels. Businesses will be permitted to do their own disinfection and people would become (cautiously) accustomed to living in a pandemic, despite high levels of sickness around them and the regulatory controls which will be in place.


The second point about not knowing how is also answerable. There's actually a lot businesses can do to prepare. There's a lot businesses can do in advance so that they are ready and know what to do when the time comes. Here's a summary of a few of them:


Things that you can do to prepare


Establish your level of risk exposure. Before you know what you need to do you'll need to do some sort of Bird Flu risk assessment. There are four areas you need to focus on, processes, people, suppliers and utilities. You should also consider doing a business impact analysis, it'll give you an idea on your cost/benefit to justify the funding you may need.


Choose your 'Flu Manager'. Every company needs an Influenza Manager(s) to take the lead in the company's planning for the pandemic, and guide the company's response (in their location) once the pandemic starts. This specialist business continuity manager role needs to be hands on.


Identify your protective equipment needs. When people are panic buying there will be supply shortages of face masks, hand disinfectants and other cleaning supplies/equipment that you'll need for workplace disinfection, and to maintain a sterile office environment with, so you need to do your stockpiling now. Put it all in storage and forget about it. You'll be glad you did!


Get your sickness response plans mapped out. Locate a room which can be used as a quarantine room and plan how you will manage illness at work. Establish a proper written set of sickness at work response procedures for proper workforce management and the quick return to work.


Company alert status. You'll need to align your own company pandemic response phases such as 'yellow', 'orange' and 'red' with those of your local government or the WHO to set into motion each of the activation phases in your response plan. For example the special office access control arrangements for when the yellow, orange and red alert phases are initiated.


Consider international travel policy. What special travel policy guidelines will you have for staff who are already in an infected area when the pandemic breaks out? Will you let you staff travel to an infected area during the yellow, orange and red alert phases and what additional information do you need to know on the travel application form?


Governments and health agencies. Learn what your local public health sector actions will be and what regulatory compliance requirements your government may require of you terms of illness record keeping, and contact tracking of where sick staff have been.


Educate management and staff. Ensure to carry out proper staff training so they are familiar with your company response procedures, and run some practice drills so they can see for themselves the plans in action. Ensure to give them access to plenty of Bird Flu information, FAQs and videos, so they can learn what Bird Flu symptoms are, its characteristics and the differences between flu and the common cold.


Promoting awareness. It is vital during the heightened alert phases to use as many ways as possible to promote staff awareness. Put up awareness posters around the office to remind staff of the importance of practicing good personal hygiene and implement special social distancing policies.


Carry on communicating. Good communications management will be critical to your ongoing operations and customer confidence. Make sure you can also get messages out to your staff efficiently using some sort of cascading communications tree, so that staff can get the 'all clear' and get back to their workstations quickly.


Pre-prepare forms. Pre-prepare all the lists and forms you'll need and ready a preparedness report with an estimated project timeline. This will help you keep your implementation on track and within budget.


Nigel Thomas, a 20+ year business continuity planning professional, is Managing Director of Continuity Business Solutions Limited, author of the hugely successful "Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for Business Preparedness and Survival" (with over 10,000 copies sold!) and is also sponsor of Bird Flu Manual Online the web's best reference and resource mine designed to help businesses and homes prepare for a pandemic outbreak of Bird Flu.

Another New Page on Bird Flu Manual Online

Bird Flu Manual Online has added another great new information page to the web site:

Sample Business Impact Analysis Questionnaire.

Thank you.

More Chapters for Bird Flu Manual Online!

Bird Flu Manual is please to announce the addition of new great content on our site. New chapters include...

Communications Tree

Quarantine Room

Company Pandemic Response Phases

Managing Illness at Work

Sickness at Work Response Procedures

Workplace Disinfection

Staff Training

Staff Awareness

Personal Hygiene Education

Company Pandemic Activation Phases

Sickness Contact Tracking

Bird Flu Characteristics

Bird Flu Symptoms

Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual

Thank you.

The Bird Flu Manual Online Team

Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual Download Available

Continuity Business Solutions Ltd and Bird Flu Manual Online announce the arrival of the long awaited Bird Flu D-I-Y eManual for Business Preparedness and Survival. The best electronic reference manual available. Get yours now!

Is your business no longer under threat from Bird Flu?

Don't let the lack of news have you drop your guard. An Avian Influenza pandemic remains a very real threat, despite an apparent ‘lull’ in activity (reported or otherwise) in recent months. It remains with WHO at Yellow Alert Status (3 of 6) meaning “No or very limited human-to-human transmission”.

However there should be no disillusionment, at some point, be it in months or in a decade, after more ‘false starts’ and lulls, the virus will successfully mutate to an infectious type at a place and time when effective containment is not forthcoming. If the strain is infectious enough and there are enough transient people in the vicinity to harbour it, the ingredients will be present and a global pandemic event will take place.

Fortunately the worst case scenario is the least most likely to transpire. That is for the virus to mutate into a highly contagious strain, and for it to kill over 50% of people it infects (as is the case with the current bird-to-human only cases). The consequences of this would be catastrophic and the survivors would have to get used to a very different world. Ironically it is this doomsday approach which has prevented many businesses from taking any preventative steps whatsoever to prepare themselves. What's the point?

In fact the most likely scenario is not doomsday at all, there is definitely a point to preparing, the most likely scenario will be far less devastating.

Whilst it is true that virtually every person on the planet will at some point contract the pandemic flu, some 50% of those infected will not even know they have it, 40% will suffer from only mild discomfort (as with the ‘normal’ seasonal influenza), and only a small percentage of the rest who suffer severe discomfort will succumb to it, leading to perhaps at most a 1% to 2% fatality rate. This has been the case for previous pandemics in history such as the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Additionally, the pandemic medical research and technology race-against-time we are witnessing may lessen those numbers still further.

Whilst even a 1% to 2% fatality rate is still catastrophic it will not fundamentally alter our society. In quantative terms, a company of 1000 people could expect to lose 10 to 20 staff over the 18 month duration of the pandemic, probably less of a loss in number terms than is the normal staff turnover rate. These relatively small numbers however disguise the crippling effects an outbreak would have on business, as plans must be in place to carry operations through weeks or months with a 50% or more personnel absenteeism rate, with even healthy staff off work due to fear, home quarantine and caring for others.

Based on pandemic events throughout history, most experts agree that the next pandemic will last approximately 18 months and come in three distinct waves. Human nature is such that at the commencement of the pandemic, and to a lesser extent on commencement of each subsequent wave, fear and panic will grip society with most isolating themselves and their families from close contact with other members of the public. This ‘over-reaction’ was evidenced in the cities affected by the SARS outbreak of 2003, with many travellers reporting prejudices against them worldwide if it was known they had been in an infected area. As tragic as it was only 895 people died from SARS, far less than most of the other scourges which plague our modern society, medical or otherwise.

With a global pandemic looming, even most governments' initial reaction will be equally disproportionate with for example, whole floors of offices being ordered closed for controlled disinfection when only single (suspect) cases occur within them.

Within a relatively short period however the hype and fear will subside as the public becomes educated and the actual fatality rate of the virus strain becomes clear. Soon most will want to come out of isolation and try to resume a sense of normality in their lives. Governments would need to loosen controls as resources would not be able to cope for long if sustained at those initial levels. Businesses will be permitted to do their own clean up and people would become (cautiously) accustomed to living in a pandemic, despite high levels of sickness around them and the regulatory controls which will be in place.

The obvious picture which emerges from this is that provided a business can educate its staff on what to expect, how to protect themselves, and satisfy them that it has taken appropriate measures to protect them and their families, those staff are far more likely to return to the workplace quickly. The reality is that an office or any other enclosed working environment can and should be made into the safest place for staff to be outside of the home.

If the methods used to do this are communicated to staff ahead of time, the business will continue to operate when others around them fall over.

In conclusion, businesses which still take the pandemic threat seriously and allocate funds and resources into preventative measures will survive or even thrive during and following a global pandemic. A company needs to win the main board support it needs to do just this, and show it’s shareholders, staff, clients, suppliers and the public at large its commitment to its operational continuity.

You can find solutions and tools to these and many other Bird Flu Preparedness issues by referring to our online reference manual. Ideal for Human Resource Managers, General Managers, business owners. Every resource you'll need to get your business prepared for a Bird Flu pandemic. The best reference manual on the net! No login required!

Nigel Thomas is a veteran business continuity professional. He is also the operator of Bird Flu Manual Online, a reference and resource mine designed to help you get your business prepared for Bird Flu. Use the WHO's Pandemic Activation Phases and what lists and forms you could prepare in advance. No login required.

New Bird Flu Manual Forum!

Bird Flu Manual is pleased to announce the launch of its new Bird Flu Manual Forum. Visit us for all the questions and answers you'll need to help you prepare your business and homes for a pandemic outbreak of Bird Flu. Thanks you.

New Resources on Birdflu-Manual

Bird Flu Manual Online is pleased to announce a lot more great resources for you to help you prepare your business and home for a pandemic outbreak of Bird Flu. Check it out at www.birdflu-manual.com