Current estimates are that more than one in four UK residents would be affected by a major pandemic flu outbreak, which could hit the country at any time. Whilst the medical sector are frantically contingency-planning to ensure our physical wellbeing, business continuity planning will be the difference between economic survival and failure. So how is UK business reconciling the challenge of the potential medical threat with the natural tendency towards reactive management and rampant skepticism? If the present predictions are correct, around 30 percent of the workforce will be affected at any one time and a figure of 50,000 additional deaths is likely. Much of the impact will be from absences from work, either through illness itself or through the need to care for family members. Schools will be severely disrupted with up to 50 percent of children affected in previous pandemics. School closures have a knock-on effect on business continuity and maintenance of essential services, as parent workers will need to remain at home to provide child care.
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