Posted By Nick Egan "Not if, but when" says the CMO Has anyone given any thought yet to the occupational and business risks of the "threatened" pandemic flu? 75% mortality of hospitalised casualties in the Far East should be more of a worry than any imagined terrorist threat. Protecting employees out in the public realm and business continuity in the face of depleted staff numbers, what else? Nick

Posted By John Webster Flu jabs will have no effect. Every strain of flu is different, and any vaccine can only be made once the strain is known. This takes several months after the onset. You can get jabs for the common strains found in the UK at the moment, but as we all know, these are not particularly virulent. The point about a pandemic is the risk that a particularly virulent strain will emerge which spreads around the world faster than a vaccine can be developed. This is theoretical at the moment. However, a particularly virulent strain is found in birds in asia. It does not affect humans ......yet. But it will mutate and evolve, like all flu viruses do, and if (many say when) it develops the ability to infect humans, and retains its virulence then bingo...pandemic. The government is stockpiling anti-viral drugs and this is probably the only medical measure which can be taken. We will certainly have a few days, more likely a few weeks notice that something is on the move, and the main things we can do are to restrict travel, avoid meetings (hooray), and insist that anyone developing cold/flu symptoms stops at home. Ensure that your contingency plans mean safety is not compromised with large scale sickness absence, and spare a thought for us in the NHS who will be massively overloaded with patients when half the staff are off sick! For my part, its either a crash course in hospital portering, or a move to one of our uninhabited islands. John

Posted By brian mills I have just received the UK Pandemic Flu Plan from the Department of Health. You may find this a useful document to read when considering business continuity for your companies. It is available from the DoH web page, so it is not restricted. Regards Brian

Posted By Jonathan Breeze If I may open this one up again with a question that has been raised on another site I occasionally visit: "What about ministers of religion?" They are not Cat. 1 or 2 responders as far as I can see. However as part of their job role they may be expected to visit the sick/ infirm, minister last rites etc... All sorts of things that they feel should be continued during a pandemic. What measures should they consider putting in place to ensure that they don't become either vectors of disease or ill themselves? Surgical masks? Reducing contact where possible? Sounds like the sort of dilemma faced in Camus' The Plague.