Corporate Pandemic Planning

Contact Health Services Australia Group and the Travel Doctor to assist your organisation develop a corporate pandemic plan. Mr Brock Cambourne – 07 3307 9471 or Dr Tony Gherardin – 03 9224 8352

Staff who travel and 'ex-pats'

Travel may represent a higher risk for acquiring the influenza. The itinerary may include travel within regions of current human influenza outbreaks, or where avian influenza transmission is occurring. Airport queues, lounges, public transport and hotel lobbies are all great places for the transmission of respiratory illness.

Traveling staff should be well prepared. All traveling staff should consult travel medicine services before travel to get current and accurate advice about health matters, any relevant vaccinations, and the provision of an appropriate personalised medical kit.

All traveling staff should be vaccinated for human influenza, and should receive the flu vaccination every year. It doesn’t matter when in the year the vaccine is given, as influenza viruses circulate at all times of the year. Staff traveling into areas where current avian influenza activity is occurring should understand the principles of avoiding avian influenza, by avoiding contact with birds and bird products, as well as avoiding human cases. Staff should carry and use handwash gel.

It is useful to have a N95 mask available, although the chance of needing it is remote.

Staff should have instructions about the management of a flu-like illness while travelling, and should have a plan for accessing medical assistance if required. It is ideal that the medical service provider is a potential source of anti-viral agents which can be used to help prevent or treat influenza.

For selected travellers such as those to remote areas, or those whose work includes contact with birds or bird products, they should have access to antivirals, either by carrying it personally or at a selected company base-station.

Expatriates (ex-pats) represent a special risk group. They can be exposed in the course of their work and social life, and workers in locations where avian strains are circulating are therefore at higher risk than those within Australia and New Zealand.

Ex-pats should be fully prepared before postings by expert travel medicine specialists, and this should include vaccination against influenza. Competent local medical providers should be identified, and access to diagnostics, antiviral drugs and treatment facilities all should be considered.

Evacuation strategies need to be identified. The trigger for possible evacuation should be clear and well understood and articulated in an organisation’s corporate pandemic plan. It is essential that travel insurance contains an evacuation component and that travel documents are keep current.

Related Information

All staff should be aware of the basic hygiene techniques and principles for protection against respiratory disease. For hygiene tips go to our Fact Sheet section.
During a pandemic there will be a very important pool of workers who contract the disease but survive and become immune. Keeping a database of these individuals would make staffing front-line public areas easier.
Pandemics usually spread to all parts of the globe within less than a year and affect more than a quarter of the total population; they also tend to recur in second and sometimes third waves.
If 25% of Australians were affected by an influenza pandemic and there was no vaccine or treatment available, 13,000 to 44,000 deaths and 57,900 to 148,000 hospitalisations could occur over a 6 to 8 week period.