| MedPrep Consulting Group LLC Dr. Stuart B. Weiss | | IMPORTANT INFLUENZA UPDATE #4 US/MEXICO SITUATION | | U.S. Public Health Emergency declared WHO still holds at Pandemic Phase 3. YOU SHOULD BE AT WHO PANDEMIC PHASE 4 | | (For the benefit of those people who are catching up, we advised on Saturday that you should treat the current swine flu situation as a WHO Pandemic Alert Phase 4 event (see analysis below)). In separate news conferences yesterday, the U.S. Government declared a public health emergency and the World Health Organization (WHO) left the Pandemic Alert Phase at 3 despite mounting evidence of "increased" human-to-human spread. CURRENT SITUATION: - Currently there are 20 patients with confirmed swine flu H1N1 illness in 5 states across the United States (NY, OH, KS, TX, CA)
- The U.S. Government yesterday declared a Public Health Emergency that frees up state and local resources to deal with the current situation. It also allows the movement of and access to anti-viral medications in the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile.
- The WHO stated in a news conference that it needs more information before raising the Pandemic Alert Level from 3 to 4
- So far, illness seem to primarily affecting people in their 20's, 30's and 40's
- While there are no travel restrictions to or from Mexico, several large U.S. airlines have waived change fees for travelers changing their travel plans
- Canada reports 6 cases in 2 provinces of Canada
- Israel reports one case in a traveler who had recently returned from Mexico
- Suspect cases continue to be investigated in New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom
| | | ANALYSIS: This situation is highly fluid as details from Mexico and the U.S. are emerging. As we continue to advise, this is the time to prepare and you should consider the world at WHO Pandemic Phase 4 even though the level itself has not been raised. You may be asking why hasn't the WHO raised the Pandemic Alert level from 3 to 4 since there is mounting evidence of increased human-to-human spread. We gained some insight into the decision process from Dr. Fukuda of the WHO at yesterday's press conference. He said "If WHO makes a decision that the phase has changed, this is really a very serious signal to the world. I have no doubt that many countries are already taking these actions, but it does send a signal, so we want to make sure we're standing on pretty good solid ground". Their next committee meeting is Tuesday but you SHOULDN'T WAIT for that. In audits that we have done of corporate pandemic plans, we routinely see a trend towards taking actions too late in the game. People plan to test IT systems too late, train employees too late, practice working from home too late. It is critical that you avoid these mistakes. The earlier you practice these important components of your plan, the more likely you will be successful. As you can see from the current situation, conditions change rapidly during the early days of an outbreak and it is impossible to know which way this will go. Will things get rapidly worse, stabilize or fade away? In our opinion, it would be a mistake to wait for the WHO to raise its Pandemic Alert Level. Now is the time to review your plans and implement those initial steps that can be turned off if this stabilizes or fades away. I like to use an example that others have also used of hurricane preparations. If weather forecasters are predicting that a hurricane will hit your area, most people and businesses will take precautions even though hurricanes sometimes change directions. Its the same with the current swine flu situation. Its early in the disease outbreak but there are potential storm clouds on the horizon. They may blow over but what would you do if tomorrow the storm got much worse.
ADVICE: - Continue to closely follow the news. News stories about this will continue to appear on all major news outlets. Remember that we expect to see more cases pop up as surveillance around the world is stepped up. Also, from a statistical standpoint, it would not be unexpected to see some deaths in the U.S. if the number of cases continue to rise.
- NOW IS THE TIME TO REVIEW YOUR PANDEMIC PLANS. I know that I keep saying this but I can't stress this enough that it is time to consider what would happen if this virus turns more serious in the next few months and you had a 30%-40% reduction in your staff.
- Develop travel plans for employees going to Mexico. While there are no travel restrictions to Mexico in place at this time, you should consider not traveling to Mexico City or the surrounding areas until we know more about the outbreak. The next week will be important as new information emerges.
- Stay Home if your are sick . Encourage a corporate culture which promotes staying home if an employee has flu-like symptoms. In many company cultures, employees come to work when they are feeling sick. In this situation that behavior should be discouraged.
- Review your health benefit policies. There are several key medical benefit issues that you should look at. For example, if this situation gets worse, can you waive out-of-network benefit restrictions to allow employees to seek care from available out of-network providers? Will your pharmacy benefits plans allows employees to obtain more than 60 or 90 days worth of prescription medications? These are some of the issues our clients plan for.
- Communicate with your employees. Inform your employees about company preparedness efforts. Remind employees about family preparedness. For example, who would watch the children if schools were closed tomorrow?
- Remind your employees about hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette. Influenza spreads through the air by droplets. It is important to remind employees that hand washing and covering their cough/sneeze can go a long way to limit the spread of flu. There are good materials available on this that we can share with you.
Not preparing now would be a serious mistake should things worsen quickly. If you have any questions or concerns that we can help you with, please feel free to reach out to me. My email is: sweiss@MedPrepGroup.com To add your email address to our email alert mailing list (if you received this when someone forwarded it to you) click the button below. |
Stuart Weiss, MD
MedPrep Consulting Group LLC | | | | |
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