Tag: Swine Flu

Workplace Challenges of Influenza (Seasonal and H1N1)

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Have you gotten your flu shot yet?

I noticed the leaves changing colors in my backyard. That means the annual influenza season is approaching. This year we also get the second round of the Swine Flu. (The pork industry prefers that we use the H1N1 designation instead.) It looks like this second round of H1N1 will be more of a problem than the spring outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its Guidance for Business and Employers to Plan and Respond to the 2009-2010 Flu Season and the Department of Homeland Security has released its Planning for 2009 H1N1 Influenza: A Preparedness Guide for Small Businesses.

You should review your policies designed to protect their healthy employees, guard the privacy of sick employees, and comply with applicable legal requirements. That means you need to be familiar with the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, as well as your own internal attendance policies, collective bargaining obligations, employee benefits, and insurance law. Throw some state and local laws into the mix.

The key will be to encourage your sick workers to stay home and not punish them for staying out sick.

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Swine Flu and Ethics

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The Swine Flu has spread in the United States with about 100 confirmed cases in over 10 states. There has even been one confirmed death. These are still very small numbers.

Keep in mind that the CDC estimated that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. So one death related to the swine flu, no matter how tragic, is not significant as a nationwide health problem. The Swine Flu has a long way to go to become even an average influenza outbreak.

Personally, I am not worried, still take public transportation, and don’t wear a surgical mask when I am out. (To be on the safe side, I have not been kissing any pigs.)

Although I am clearly skeptical that the Swine Flu will arise to a pandemic, all the news coverage did make think about the ethical issues related to pandemic. Earlier this week I focused on the disaster recovery and compliance issues related to a pandemic. I decided to take a detour from business ethics and took a look at medical ethics.

There are some interesting ethical issues that come into play with a pandemic. Who gets treated first? Who doesn’t get treated if you have to ration supplies?

The CDC takes the position that the over-riding, guiding principle in pandemic influenza management is the preservation of a functioning society. That means medical providers, public safety personnel, and individuals essential to the “functioning of key aspects of society” get treated first. (I assume that compliance officers do not fall into any of those groups.)

In this video, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Director of Bioethics Margaret R. McLean talks with Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson about the recent outbreak of Swine Flu and some of the ethical issues it may pose.

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Swine Flu, Disaster Recovery, and Compliance

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One aspect of a compliance program is disaster recovery. Investors want to know that your operations can be up and running if something goes wrong. Although first thoughts go to an extraordinary event like the World Trade Center attacks, the problem is more likely to be something less dramatic.

From today’s headlines, it may be time to look at your disaster recovery plans in case of a pandemic. If Swine Flu keeps most of your workforce at home, what do you do?

But first you should decide whether you need to worry about the Swine Flu. The culprit is an unusual new virus known as A/H1N1, which is a form of swine flu that has made its way from pigs into humans. This is an entirely new hybrid strain composed of pig, bird and human viruses. As to whether it risks becoming a pandemic, that depends on the severity of the effects and how easily it is transmitted.

Over 1,500 Mexicans have been afflicted with symptoms that may be the result of this new virus. But it is not yet confirmed whether the cause of most of these cases was A/H1N1 or commonplace strains of influenza. Five American states—California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio and New York—have confirmed mild cases of A/H1N1. So too has Canada,  Britain, Israel and New Zealand. One theory is that college students have been bringing the virus back to the U.S. after college spring break in Mexico.

On the very good side of things, reports indicate that the Mexican swine flu virus is susceptible to the most widely stockpiled flu antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and its relatives. If the effects are severe and it is very contagious, tools are available to fight it.

You can judge whether you should be alarmed at the Swine Flu outbreak. (I am not.) But you should take this as an opportunity to test your disaster recovery plan and make sure you can still be up and running if your workforce is not in the office.

And just to be safe, don’t kiss pigs.

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Image is from Cute Overload: Mmmmm, snoutlicioussss Thanks to Niki Black for pointing it out: Swine Flu Transmission solved from Twitter