OHNs have unique role in preparing worksite, employees for flu pandemic.(Occupational Health Nurse)

Publication: Occupational Health Management

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COPYRIGHT 2006 A Thomson Healthcare Company

OHNs have unique role in preparing worksite, employees for flu pandemic

Whether avian flu goes pandemic or not, preparing is time well spent

It may not be this year, and it may not be avian flu, or the H5N1 strain. But health experts agree that an influenza pandemic is inevitable, and occupational health professionals are looking closely at what they can do to prepare their employers and work forces for the impact.

Pandemics — global epidemics — most often occur when diseases that typically affect only animals mutate and are transmitted to humans, and then mutate again so that they are passed from human to human. As of early May, there have been documented cases of bird-to-human transmission of the avian influenza strain, but no human-to-human transmissions.

As of May 8, the CDC was reporting 63 cases of human illness from H5N1 worldwide in 2006, resulting in 39 deaths — better than 61% mortality. Since 2003, there have been 207 documented cases in humans, with 115 deaths. All documented cases were contracted by bird-to-human transmission, and were primarily reported in Asia and Eastern Europe.

"The thing is that nobody knows if it will mutate to human-to-human transmission, or when it might, and what the mortality would be if it does," points out Jim Reynolds, MD, of Mercer Human Resource Consulting's Denver offices. "Currently, with bird-to-human transmission, there is a reported 40% mortality rate, but we don't know what it might be if it mutates to human-to-human transmission."

Health experts around the world, however, have speculated about some of the most likely effects should H5N1 influenza create a pandemic:

*potentially high death rate;

*heavy demand on communities' entire resources to prevent spread and manage infections;

*health services possibly overwhelmed;

*absentee rates exceeding 40% from illness and fear of exposure put business continuity at risk worldwide.

That said, experts are still quick to point out that an influenza pandemic could be far less severe than the worst-case scenarios. The epidemic of 1918, which killed 40 million people worldwide, is often referred to as the...

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