It's Not Flu as Usual

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Imagine that ten percent of your employees are too sick to come to work on any given day. Imagine that cumulatively, 40 percent of your workforce could be absent for as many as three to four months. Imagine that the other businesses you rely on are facing the same massive absentee rates.

 

Hard as it may be to believe, such a scenario could happen -- indeed, some health officials say it’s inevitable. The cause: a pandemic flu.

 

 

Each winter, the flu kills approximately 36,000-40,000 Americans, hospitalizes more than 200,000, and costs the U. S. economy over $10 billion in lost productivity and direct medical expenses.

 

Bad as that is, health experts are now warning about a far more lethal kind of flu -- a pandemic flu that could kill over half a million in the U.S., hospitalize more than 2 million, and cost our economy a staggering $160 – $675 billion.

 

A pandemic flu will spread rapidly and easily from person to person, affecting all age groups. It will cause illness in a high proportion of those infected. Health officials are concerned that the current avian "bird" flu which is circulating widely could mutate to a new strain of flu that humans have no natural immunity against -- the World Health Organization has said that a bird flu pandemic could infect 25-30 percent of the world's population.

 

With that much of the population and workforce affected, a pandemic flu could disrupt your business -- perhaps even force it to close down for a time.

 

These Web pages offer guidance on how businesses can:

Learn more: