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WHO Declares Swine flu a Pandemic. Now What?

The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert level to 6, making swine flu the first true pandemic in more than 40 years. Here's what it means for your company.

By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor

June 11, 2009 — CSO —

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared swine flu the first pandemic in more than 40 years.

The news arrived with none of the panic that swirled in the air when news of the virus first emerged in late April. But security experts say there are still actions emergency planners should be taking to ensure order if later waves of the H1N1 virus prove more deadly.

By raising the pandemic level to Phase 6, WHO has confirmed that sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus is happening at the community-level in multiple countries. To date, the virus has appeared in 74 countries, including Mexico, the US, UK, Australia, Japan, and Chile. There have been approximately 28,000 cases with 141 deaths so far, though the move to Phase 6 does not necessarily mean swine flu is causing more severe illness or more deaths.

But it does mean the world is threatened by an unpredictable virus that could grow weaker or stronger with time. History has shown that pandemics often start with a mild first wave, followed in the fall and winter by a more lethal wave. The best example of this was the Spanish Influenza of 1918-19, which killed roughly 50 million to 100 million people worldwide.

Emergency preparedness experts say there's no cause for panic, but that history serves as a reminder that organizations should always be thinking about how to keep the machinery moving in the event something big and unexpected happens. [See: Now That the Hype Is Over, Keep Planning]

For emergency planners, there are both physical and cyber security challenges to think about regarding swine flu and other potential pandemic viruses.

On the physical side, private entities should be hammering out a game plan for who would do what and where if the government decided to restrict our movements to contain an outbreak, says Kevin Nixon, an emergency planning expert who has testified before Congress and served on infrastructure security boards and committees including the Disaster Recovery Workgroup for the Office of Homeland Security, and the Federal Trade Commission.

"Companies and employers that have not done so are being urged to establish a business continuity plan should the government direct state and local governments to immediately enforce their community containment plans," Nixon says. [Podcast: How to Prepare for a Swine flu Pandemic]

If the Federal government does direct states and communities to implement their emergency plans, recommendations, based on the severity of the pandemic, may include: