First, my last post talked about H5N1 found in Canada.  The last report I saw was that it was probably low pathegenic H5N1 and therefore not dangerous to people.  A very lucky break!

Now on to the current breaking pandemic news:  There were four outbreaks in the last 24 hours.  Three were animal outbreaks (Vietnam, India and Bangladesh), and one was a human infection (China).  This was reported by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at: 

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/feb0209birds-br.html

This highlights the fact that H5N1 is still very active in parts of the world, and is spreading and still has the potential to become the next pandemic.  The virus has been less active this winter than it was in the winter of 2006-2007, but it is still a grave threat.

I heard at a recent seminar that if we get to 2017 without experiencing a pandemic in the world, then it will be the longest we have gone in recorded history without experiencing a pandemic.  The last one was in 1968, over 40 years ago.  We are already overdue for a pandemic, as the experts often say, but if we go another 8 years without one, that will set a milestone for longevity between pandemics.  The likelihood is, therefore, that there will be a pandemic sometime in the next 8 years. 

We don’t know when it will happen for sure.  We also don’t know how severe it will be when it does occur, but we do know its coming, so please, please, please prepare for a pandemic in your community.

If you prepare, you have less to fear.  For more information on pandemic planning, see www.pandemicprep.org.

Thanks……….Harlan

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Business Continuity, Pandemic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.