Australian Businesses Becoming Ultra-Prepared For Pandemic

By Darryl Mason

Mounting fears of an avian flu outbreak amongst humans has caused Australian businesses to stockpile anti-viral drugs and face masks and make definitive plans for how they will continue to operate when almost half of their workers may be off work, either ill or looking after someone who is.

Pandemic risk committees already exist within major companies such as Bluescope Steel and Telstra while the Commonwealth Bank has appointed a pandemic planning project manager.

Expanded computer networks to enable staff to work from home in the event of an outbreak have been included in the preparations against bird flu.

Through its relationship with medical support agency International SOS, BHP Billiton, has stockpiles of anti-viral drugs in regional offices considered at high risk.

The Bank of Queensland has proposed to implement basic hygiene education for staff. According to immunologists this measure would help to reduce the spread of disease if a pandemic develops.

Small businesses, such as the Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island, have stockpiled 1000 masks and have evacuation plans in place if a pandemic strikes.

Businesses have been advised to plan for up to half their staff being absent due to illness, or caring for sick family members or children because of school being closed. As immunologist Ron Penny said," There's no strong recommendation that people who have a seriously infectious disease should stay at home.I think we need to educate people".

Federal Government advisers have warn that economically, Queensland would be the hardest hit of any Australian state with even a modest level pandemic causing a loss of about $11 billion, off the Gross State Product (GSP) in the first year alone.

According to Telstra's network services managing director Michael Lawrey preparations for the likelihood of a pandemic were slightly higher in intensity than planning for other business risks such as fires, cyclones and floods.

Sydney-based company Good Health Solutions has estimated the cost of protecting a staff of 1000 against the possibility of an influenza pandemic at about $92,000.

Businesses such as big retailers would probably be required to spend several millions if they decided to stockpile enough face masks and other protective gear to protect staff for three months.

SIGNS OF PANDEMIC COMING SOON?

AUSTRALIAN INSURERS DUCK OUT OF BIRD FLU PROTECTION

From The Courier Mail :

INSURANCE companies have started writing bird flu clauses into their travel policies to protect them from massive payouts if a pandemic hits.

The clauses mean Australians insured under such policies will not be covered if they contract avian influenza while travelling.

They are similar to those written into policies after the 2001 September 11 attacks protecting insurance companies against payouts in the event of a terrorist act.

A travel insurance policy issued by Vero Insurance Ltd states the company will not pay for: "Claims . . . arising from avian influenza (including the H5N1 strain) or any derivative or mutation of such viruses, or the threat or perceived threat of any of the above."

The policy is effective from July 1.

Fears about the possibility of a pandemic have been gathering momentum since confirmation of the first human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 strain of the virus in Indonesia late last month.

Genetic sequencing of a virus sample taken from a 10-year-old boy who died from avian flu showed a minute change that was also found in a sample taken from his infected father, proving H5N1 had moved from one human to another.

However, experts say there is no evidence the virus is moving easily from human to human. So far this year, the World Health Organisation has confirmed 55 people have died from avian flu, compared with 41 in 2005.

Most cases have involved people contracting the virus from close contact with domestic birds.

Since 2003, 229 people have been infected with H5N1, with 131 of them dying.

The Federal Government's latest influenza pandemic business continuity guide warns that standard insurance policies will not generally cover a company's financial losses associated with a pandemic.

Such policies often contain force majeure, or natural disaster, clauses to protect insurers from incurring excessive liabilities.

However, the Government's guide suggests a few adverse impacts of a pandemic may be covered under some policies.

"Self-employed people may be able to obtain Business Overheads Cover, which covers regular fixed operating expenses of the business if the individual becomes sick," the guide says.

"In addition, companies can take out Key Person Insurance, which provides death and/or disability cover in relation to an individual who is critical to business operations.

"Companies can also insure against events such as suppliers failing to deliver vital production inputs, or fuel prices rising unexpectedly. Businesses may also wish to consider taking out Loss of Profit Insurance."

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesman warned businesses who wanted to try to protect themselves in the event of a pandemic to carefully read the product disclosure statement of their insurance policies before signing.

RUSSIA PREPARES "THE VACCINE OF LAST HOPE"

There is a literal gold rush going on today in search of a comprehensive vaccine to stop the infection and spread of bird flu in humans. It is a curious fight : attempting to create a vaccine for a virus that is yet to show itself completely.

This means that as the avian influenza virus hasn't mutated inside humans into a form that spreads more easily between humans, it is not yet know exactly what the "mix" of old and new virus forms that make up this communicable bird flu virus will actually be, if or when it reveals itself.

Australian and Russian virologists and researchers are now both claiming to be closing in on a vaccine that they will protect the vaccinated from catching the human form of the avian influenza virus, again, if or when it mutates into such a form.

It is a gold rush because, unlike AIDS, a flu virus is extremely easy to catch and spread. If mutated bird flu was steadily killing thousands of people, any company, or research facility, that had a vaccine to prevent the spread or infection would literally be sitting on a mountain of gold.

We may find ourselves in the unusual situation where there is a variety of vaccines to bird flu available at the same time, with enormous pressure from pharameutical giants on the World Health Organisation to endorse their vacccine as a universal standard.

Regardless, there will be shortages if the bird flu virus mutates within humans this year. And, of course, there is no guarantee that any of the vaccines now being developed will actually stop the vaccinated from becoming infected. It is all blue sky stuff for now, and will remain so until the pandmeic virus shows itself and a true vaccine is developed from that form of the virus.

In the meantime, we will have "best guess" vaccines, which in the end may prove to be better than nothing at all.

Of course, the easiest way to not get any virus is thoroughly wash your hands throughout the day, to keep a good distance between yourself and anybody else you meet, to not shake hands, to not share food or drinks and to wear a face mask in public doused with virus killing agents.

From Russia, comes this short report (roughly translated) which claims a vaccine will be ready by mid-September "

The Minister of Healthcare of Russia Mikhail Zurabov announced that there was a possibility of bird flu focuses in separate regions of Russia this autumn. Fortunately the Russian Federation will have vaccine fighting against that illness, Interfax reports.

”I hope that till 10th September the clinical tests of the vaccine will be finished and we are going to have at our disposal what everyone calls “vaccine of the last hope”, he stated in an interview for “Russia” TV channel...

NEW ZEALAND HOTELS TO ACT AS "BIRD FLU STATIONS"

New Zealand and Australia are impressing the World Health Organisation in their preperations to deal with a bird flu pandemic, while the United States and countries across the EU are having immense problems co-ordinating their plans.

From New Zealand :

A top pandemic response planner has confirmed officials are negotiating with hotels and motels in the seven cities with international airports over their use as quarantine stations.

John Ladd, operations coordinator for the inter-agency Border Working Group, said hotels were the most appropriate places to hold international visitors who had travelled through at-risk areas but did not show outward signs of flu.

The length of quarantine would depend on the severity of the pandemic, said Mark Jacobs, director of public health, but was typically two incubation periods. An incubation period is the time between someone getting infected and becoming sick.

Mr Ladd said if the seasonal flu was a guide, the incubation period was likely to be up to 48 hours. He would not reveal which hotels were being considered.

Planners originally considered the Ohakea Air Force base the most suitable quarantine station, but that was rejected as it "just didn't make sense".

"Ohakea is not a particularly salubrious place. There are a lot of human rights issues to take into account, people have to be able to get hold of their loved ones and so on."

Health workers would examine passengers at the airport before moving them to the appropriate place.

In busy airports, such as Auckland, care would have to be taken not to let passengers from different aircraft mix.

However, Mr Ladd said he did not expect a flood of travellers to New Zealand in a pandemic. The Sars virus outbreak saw just a handful of people travel to New Zealand on some flights from Asia.

Legislation before Parliament allows for automatic visa extensions for travellers already in New Zealand to restrict the need for face-to-face contact.

Various places have previously been mooted as quarantine stations for the general population, including islands, schools and prison facilities.

Worst-case scenarios show if the bird flu virus H5N1 sparked a pandemic, 1.6 million people would become ill in New Zealand, with 1.3 million sick at its peak. About 33,000 of those were likely to die.

That death toll of 33,000 seems low when considering that bird flu has a mortality rate higher than 50% for those infected in Indonesia and Vietnam, the two hotspots for bird flu deaths so far.

These New Zealand projected death figures may be this low because the introduction of antivirals in the earliest stages of infection are expected, or predicted, to greatly reduce the number of people who developed full blown avian influenza.

BIRD FLU SPREADING RAPIDLY ACROSS AFRICA

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning African nations against the rapid spread of the avian flu.

The FAO issued a statement explaining, "it is spreading in Africa where it is likely to become endemic in several countries."

"In the majority of cases, wherever the highly pathogenous influenza flu appeared, the global community and the countries concerned succeeded in circumventing it."

However, the FAO says that without decisive action, the deadly virus will spread across Africa.

The FAO urges leaders to take up "culling, compensation of farmers and the control of animal movements," explaining that such measures "form difficulties for the implementation of appropriate measures to fight it in Africa. To all these problems should be added the illegal trade of poultry."

"The risk will persist as long as this trade is not rigorously controlled by more dynamic veterinary services and, in any case, not before the improvement of surveillance, response to alerts, diagnosis and the transmission of field reports."

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION DEMANDS : FLU VACCINE NOW, WORRY ABOUT GETTING IT RIGHT LATER

Perhaps this is a sign that a worldwide bird flu pandemic is closer than we're being told, but the World Health Organisation has taken the extraordinary step of encouraging vaccine makers to rush quickly into producing vaccines, even though the effectiveness of these vaccines may not be known until after a human pandemic is over.

Very, very strange.

From Bloomberg :

Work on vaccines used to protect against a flu pandemic must start immediately, even though the effectiveness of the treatments might not be known until after a global outbreak ended, the World Health Organization said.

Randomized trials of candidate pandemic vaccines will be important in gauging their safety and gaining regulatory approval, the Geneva-based WHO said in a report published yesterday in the Weekly Epidemiological Record.

"Internationally coordinated preparatory work for these trials should start immediately, as little time would be available for putting the needed infrastructure in place after the start of the pandemic,'' the report said.

Pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi-Aventis SA, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, MedImmune Inc. and CSL Ltd. are racing to produce treatments for use in a pandemic amid concern over the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has infected at least 230 people in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, killing 132.

Governments and international health authorities are trying to stem the spread of H5N1 to reduce opportunities for the virus to mutate into a pandemic form.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will open a crisis management center in Rome later this month to help improve control of H5N1, which spread in domestic fowl and wild birds to at least 55 countries since late 2003.

A pandemic can start when a novel influenza A-type virus, to which almost no one has natural immunity, emerges and begins spreading worldwide. Experts believe that a pandemic in 1918, which may have killed as many as 50 million people, began when a lethal avian flu virus jumped to people from birds.

At least four strains of bird flu are capable of spawning the next pandemic, including the H5N1 virus, according to virologist Robert Webster, the Rosemary Thomas professor at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Although a vaccine against the H5N1 virus is under development in several countries, none is ready for commercial production and no vaccines are expected to be widely available until several months after the start of a pandemic, the WHO said.

"Effectiveness of pandemic vaccines will not be known before the pandemic and possibly only after it is over,'' the report in the Weekly Epidemiological Record said. "

"In addition, unexpected adverse events, whether coincidental or vaccine- related, will occur that may lead to anxiety and may affect vaccine uptake.''

Pregnant women are at special risk for influenza infection based on morbidity and mortality from previous pandemics and from intense flu seasons, the report said.

INDONESIA : NEW BIRD FLU DEATH BRINGS COUNTRY'S HUMAN TOLL CLOSER TO WORLD'S HIGHEST

There hasn't yet been the much feared pandemic outbreak in Indonesia, but the steady tick-tock of human deaths goes on.

From the Jakarta Post :

A 44-year-old Indonesian man died of bird flu, the health ministry said Sunday, edging the sprawling nation closer to becoming the world's hardest hit by the virus.

If confirmed by a World Health Organization-approved laboratory, the man's death would bring the number of Indonesians killed by the H5N1 bird flu strain to at least 42, the same as Vietnam.

"Local tests showed he was infected with the H5N1 virus," senior health ministry official Nyoman Kandun said, adding that the man died July 12 after being hospitalized for two days with a high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

The victim, from Jakarta's eastern outskirts, reportedly came into contact with infected birds, he said.

Bird flu has killed at least 132 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to WHO.

Vietnam has not recorded any new human deaths this year, thanks in part to an aggressive campaign to slaughter all birds in infected areas.

But the death toll in Indonesia, a massive archipelago that is home to 220 million people, is increasing faster than any other country in the world -- with all of its deaths occurring in the last year.

The cash-strapped government has been criticized for not routinely slaughtering fowl in infected areas, seen as the best way to stop the virus from spreading. It says it cannot afford to compensate farmers.

AS NUMBER OF INFECTIONS INCREASE, VIRUS MUTATIONS MULTIPLY

"New research shows the H5N1 avian flu virus multiplies several times as it's passed down through generations of people.

"Scientists studied a case in which at least seven members of one Indonesian family became infected. The research shows as the virus was passed through three generations of one family, it mutated. In one instance, 21 times.

"This is believed to be the first time H5N1 has spread through so many generations."

BIRD FLU IN RUSSIA

G8 LEADERS BACK RUSSIAN PLAN FOR WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION BIRD FLU CENTRE

From Novosti :

Leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations gave their support to Russia's initiative to build within its territory a World Health Organization center for the fight against bird flu in Eurasia and Central Asia in a joint statement Sunday.

"We welcome the Russian proposal to establish the WHO Collaborating Centre on Influenza for Eurasia and Central Asia, subject to meeting all applicable WHO and other international standards, to enhance international capacity to counter the spread of the viruses in the region," the document on the fight against infectious diseases adopted at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg says.

In the statement, the leaders pledge "to help the global community prepare for a possible human influenza pandemic...."

Chief Doctor Says Russian Bird Flu Spread Now Under Control

AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES BECOMING ULTRA-PREPARED FOR PANDEMIC

(lost the link to the original version of this story, but will add it when found)

Mounting fears of an avian flu outbreak amongst humans has caused Australian businesses to stockpile anti-viral drugs and face masks and make definitive plans for how they will continue to operate when almost half of their workers may be off work, either ill or looking after someone who is.

Pandemic risk committees already exist within major companies such as Bluescope Steel and Telstra while the Commonwealth Bank has appointed a pandemic planning project manager.

Expanded computer networks to enable staff to work from home in the event of an outbreak have been included in the preparations against bird flu.

Through its relationship with medical support agency International SOS, BHP Billiton, has stockpiles of anti-viral drugs in regional offices considered at high risk.

The Bank of Queensland has proposed to implement basic hygiene education for staff. According to immunologists this measure would help to reduce the spread of disease if a pandemic develops.

Small businesses, such as the Tangalooma Resort on Moreton Island, have stockpiled 1000 masks and have evacuation plans in place if a pandemic strikes.

Businesses have been advised to plan for up to half their staff being absent due to illness, or caring for sick family members or children because of school being closed. As immunologist Ron Penny said," There's no strong recommendation that people who have a seriously infectious disease should stay at home.I think we need to educate people".

Federal Government advisers have warn that economically, Queensland would be the hardest hit of any Australian state with even a modest level pandemic causing a loss of about $11 billion, off the Gross State Product (GSP) in the first year alone.

International health experts predict bird flu has a 10 per cent chance of turning into a pandemic this financial year.

According to Telstra's network services managing director Michael Lawrey preparations for the likelihood of a pandemic were slightly higher in intensity than planning for other business risks such as fires, cyclones and floods.

Sydney-based company Good Health Solutions has estimated the cost of protecting a staff of 1000 against the possibility of a bird flu pandemic at about $92,000.

Businesses such as big retailers would probably be required to spend several millions if they decided to stockpile enough face masks and other protective gear to protect staff for three months.

CHINESE FARMER JAILED FOR BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON HUMAN BID FLU DEATHS

From Reuters :

A Chinese court jailed a farmer who reported bird flu outbreaks to the central government to three-and-a-half years for fraud and blackmail, state media said on Tuesday.

Qiao Songju, a goose farmer in the eastern province of Jiangsu, was arrested a month after he reported bird flu outbreaks in the nearby province of Jiangsu in October, Xinhua news agency said.

Qiao had denied most, but not all, of the charges, Xinhua said, without explaining who might have been blackmailed or whether the charges were linked to his bird flu reports, which turned out to be correct.

"The defendant used measures such as fabricating facts and hiding truth to swindle public and personal property ... so he should be punished for two crimes," Xinhua quoted the prosecution as saying.

Chinese media reported last month that China was considering fines for media outlets that report emergencies, such as riots, natural disasters and outbreaks of disease such as SARS or bird flu, without authorization.

China has a long history of covering up emergency incidents, and news blackout are regularly imposed by sensitive propaganda officials nervous about the effects of news reports on the image of the ruling party.

UN SAYS BIRD FLU IS SPREADING FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE

The Voice Of America has a report here which claims that the fight against the spread of bird is being lost, not won, despite 'victories' in countries like Vietnam. The world now stands, vastly unprepared, on the brink of a devastating, incalculable human pandemic. The spread of the avian influenza virus through the world's poultry stocks increases the likelihood of the virus mutating into a form that becomes easily transmisable between humans increases each time a new country reports an outbreak :

The senior U.N. System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, David Nabarro, says between 2003 and 2006, the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus was detected in 16 countries. He says that number has doubled in just six months.

"I would say it is certainly moving into more and more countries, with a speed that is, for me, and for my colleagues, a continuing and serious cause of concern," he said.

Another cause of concern is the high mortality rate. WHO Assistant Director General Margaret Chan says 228 human cases of bird flu have been reported in 10 countries, and 130 of them were fatal.

"Now this is, in terms of avian influenza, a very devastating disease," he said. "We have never seen, what we call, such a high case-fatality rate. That means more than…50 percent of people affected by the infection eventually succumb to the disease."

The deputy director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, David Harcharik, says, many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe have successfully stopped the spread of bird flu. They have done so by employing methods, such as the culling of sick poultry, disinfecting and vaccinating birds. Harcharik says, once H5N1 is stopped in poultry, human cases also stop.

"Of special concern is Africa, where there is a real risk of avian influenza becoming endemic in several countries, at least in the short term," he said. "One reason is that, it is very difficult to enforce appropriate control measures in the African context. Culling, compensation to farmers and effective checks on animal movements, which have worked well in Europe and East Asia are much harder to achieve in Africa."

LIKE THE SPANISH FLU, AVIAN INFLUENZA KILLS MORE YOUNG THAN OLD

HUMAN FATALITIES HAVE TRIPLED IN 2006

The World Health Organisation has studied the detail of more than 200 human infections of avian influenzea and uncovered a remarkable link with the fatalities of the 1919 Spanish Flu pandemic.

H5N1 has a higher human mortality rate in the young than the middle aged or elderly. Also, deaths from avian influenza tend to surge during the winter months. Even if the virus doesn't mutate into a form more likely to spread one human to another, a rise in human deaths is still expected this year.

A WHO report, written up by the New York Times here, claims the risk of the virus growing in strength and its ability to infect more and more humans remains high this year, "because of the widespread distribution of the H5N1 virus in poultry and the continued exposure of humans."

The median age of victims with confirmed cases was 20 years, the report said. The highest death rate — 73 percent — was among patients ages 10 to 19, while the overall fatality rate was 56 percent. This pattern has been noted before, but the new analysis takes in more cases; the typical age is drifting downward.

A high death rate among young adults echoes the pattern found in the 1918-1919 epidemic, said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Scientists contend that year's H1N1 virus was also an avian flu that mutated until it spread easily among humans; although it was fatal to only about 2 percent of those who caught it, that was enough to kill between 40 million and 100 million people worldwide.

Unpublished W.H.O. data from blood sampling around recent outbreaks, Dr. Osterholm noted, shows that few people carry antibodies to the virus, so there is not a huge pool of survivors of mild avian flu.

Evidence suggests that many young people in 1918 and quite a few in this outbreak are killed by a "cytokine storm" — the body's own immune reaction, which floods the lungs with fluid. Young adults generally have strong immune systems.

The W.H.O. is tracking changes in the virus, trying to predict if it will mutate into a more infectious form and hoping to build vaccines against it in time to head off a pandemic.

Fatalities from the virus have almost tripled this year compared with last year.

The typical avian flu victim is sick enough to be hospitalized four days after falling ill, and dies five days later, the report said. People over 50 have the lowest death rate, but it is still 18 percent, which is a huge impact compared with seasonal flu.

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