Preparing for a pandemic

After a noticeable absence from its usual media spotlight, bird flu or the H5N1 virus has been rearing its ugly head with reports of outbreaks across Asia in recent weeks.
And according to Aon’s second white paper on the subject, entitled “Pandemic Influenza: Exploding the myths”, businesses are becoming complacent to the risk of a possible global outbreak.
This report analyses the steps that have been taken in the past year to protect businesses against the inevitability of a pandemic and calling on them to increase their dedication toward contingency planning.
Even though advances have been made over the last year, a sense of complacency seems to be creeping in.
And according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the H5N1 virus is becoming increasingly fatal, having now spread into10 countries compared to just four a year ago.
The white paper dispels some of the myths that have contributed to this sense of complacency and shows that preparations are inconsistent across the world and will not provide adequate protection against the spread of the pandemic. Few businesses have any real experience internally of establishing thorough procedures sufficient to protect staff that are both practical and cost effective.
Businesses cannot rely on government response, development of vaccines or the supply of antiviral drugs to protect their people and operations. The white paper finds that although some governments have contingency plans, and that antiviral production capacity has grown exponentially and more attention being give to vaccine development, these do not mean that the chances of a swift mass distribution of medicine are increase and disruption to daily life it mitigated.
Aon’s report also demonstrates how risk managers overestimate the ability of insurers to meet client needs. For example, insurance cover for events such as pandemics, which are inevitable, spread globally and are set to result in major losses, is difficult to obtain and if available offers only stringent terms and conditions.