all fall down.

Byline: Robert Jaques

all fall

down

A global flu pandemic, resulting in mass workforce absence, will test continuity management systems

Every major health scare is invariably accompanied by much scaremongering. This doom-saying will almost certainly include a series of dire warnings over the lamentable disarray that passes for business continuity management or disaster recovery planning. We are advised, in such circumstances, to be 'Very Afraid' as IT and business planning will -- for many companies -- be totally disproportionate to the scale of the threat.

Despite the fact there has been much crying wolf in the past, the sky has consistently failed to fall in. So many are now arguing that we should take the growing sense of panic surrounding 'swine flu' with a pinch of salt. That said, every credible authority agrees we are overdue a global flu pandemic; it is not a question of if, but when such an outbreak will take hold.

At the time of going to press, the spread of the A(H1N1) influenza strain of swine flu that emerged in Mexico appears to be steady, but not devastating. It could be this strain that spreads to become a global pandemic, but the fact that cases are now being reported in the Far East should send shivers down our spines. Some experts think a new strain will develop when the infection merges with the better-known 'avian flu' that has been spreading in Asia for some time. Perhaps it will create a new terror -- 'flying pig flu'.