OHDEN, the Occupational Health Disaster Expert Network

Miscellaneous / Individualized Resources

• Briefing Paper on Avian Influenza (H5N1) and Agricultural Workers, IUF

• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (ASFCME)

Critique and Petition regarding the National Pandemic Flu plan

The main focus is that there's little or no attention to protecting the huge mobilized workforce for healthcare. It requests higher standards of Engineering, personal and risk stratification.

• Influenza, An Impending Pandemic, October 27, 2005 by Rashid Chotani, M.D. Dir. Global Infectious Disease Surveillance & Alert System, Johns Hopkins.

Distributed by Supercourse at the University of Pittsburgh. Available as rather hard-to-read online powerpoint or larger file download

• American Zoo and Aquarium Association Releases National Guidelines For Avian Flu Preparedness

Guidelines to Help Accredited Zoos, Aquariums Protect Animals, Monitor Virus

• Poultry Industry Websites

• Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) FAQ, discussion

Foster Farms' public information (providing consumers with the highest-quality, best-tasting poultry products available.)

• National Chicken Council:

Questions and Answers on Avian Influenza

• Epidemic Proportions: Building National Public Health Capabilities to Meet National Security Threats

Report   to Senate Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Elin Gursky, ScD, Principal Deputy for Biodefense, National Strategies Support Directorate, ANSER Institute of Homeland Security, 9/25/2005, 46 pages, PDF file

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• Dr. Peter Sandman on Risk Communication

Strategies regarding discussing and planning for pandemic flu, including reaching government, public and healthcare audiences.

• Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercise   (National Vaccine Program Office)

• Business Executives for National Security

Metro Atlanta Region Homeland Security Advisory Group

"Company Primer on Preparedness and Response Planning for Terrorist and Bioterrorist Attacks",   38 page general explanatory discussion, including 10+ pages of local resources for Georgia.

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• Business Survey Report, regarding pandemic preparedness

Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and The ERISA Industry Committee. Results were discussed in press accounts, but the report was not circulated.

Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, located in Washington, D.C., is part of Deloitte & Touche USA, LLP. The Center is led by Independent Chairman Tommy G. Thompson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services. The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a non-profit association committed to and represents exclusively the advancement of the employee retirement, health and compensation plans of America’s largest employers.

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• Corporate Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Survey 

(Excel spreadsheet) by ORC Worldwide Occupational Safety, Health and Environmental Networks- November 2005. ORC Worldwide (ORC) is an international management consulting firm offering professional assistance in human resources management for industrial, nonprofit, and public organizations.

37 large companies' responses to these questions:

• Have Purchased Tamiflu for Employees?
• Distribution Plan
• How will you detect the changes in regional incidences of infection?
• Preparedness Plans Developed or in Process
• Maintaining systems to monitor employees who travel
• Planning to use quarantine and other engineering controls
• What are your communication plans?

Additional (even BIGGER) ORC survey results from end-Nov, 2005 includes 195 companies and a much more extensive report    . "The majority of participants are still in a 'wait and see' mode, and will react to the avian influenza when a travel advisory is issued by either the WHO, CDC, SOS or their government agencies."

 

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• Pamphlet encouraging business preparedness

Healthy Americans.org (previously also known as health-track.org) developed a very compelling, short photographic pamphet    on business pandemic preparedness. It's not at all technical, but quite persuasive about the need to plan.

 

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• Rand Health: Public Health Preparedness Database

a searchable database of exercises used to evaluate public health preparedness.

The website contains:

• a searchable database of public health preparedness exercises (includes examples of selected exercises)
• public health preparedness tools and documents
• evaluation criteria to be used in evaluating an exercise
 

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• Preparedness & Community Response to Pandemics, and to Terrorism

Introductory course on pandemic influenza, at University of Albany, SUNY, "intended for a broad range of public health professionals and community responders."  The course is free, and offers 6 hrs of CME/CHES or 7.2 CNE.

They also have "Terrorism, Preparedness, and Public Health: An Introduction" at the same website.

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• AMA Materials, National Influenza Vaccine Summit

Presentation Health Protection in Action, Preventing Influenza Infection - Dr. J. Gerberding, Director CDC  (PowerPoint, 691KB)

The Summit Activities and HHS Pandemic Influenza Preparedness -  - Bruce Gellin, MD, MPH Director, National Vaccine Program Office(PowerPoint, 5392 KB)

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• URMIA White Paper Pandemic Response

University Risk Management and Insurance Association, 12 pages,    December 2005

“Pandemic—whazzat?” What makes pandemics really scary What about vaccines? What should a typical campus like mine do to prepare? Is BCP enough?

Loss of Information, Loss of Access—and Loss of Personnel Basic Hygiene for Prevention Solving the long-term problem Resources for More Information

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• AON Insurer, White Paper: Pandemic Influenza  

"Managing the risks of an invisible threat", October 2005. 28 pages.

Introduction How Influenze causes a pandemic A brief history of influenza pandemics Lessons from history

Today's Threat Business Planning Business Continuity Conclusion

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• Wharton Business School Editorial

Avian Flu: What to Expect and How Companies Can Prepare for It

Audio or text, requires signin and email confirmation, but most fields on your demographic survey are optional.

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• Institute of Medicine Report on reusing disposable filtering facepiece respirators

National Academies of Science / Institute of Medicine published a press release and a full report.

Posted to Miscellaneous References

submitted by Bill Kojola
Dept. of Occupational Safety and Health
AFL-CIO

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• American Council on Science &  Health (ACSH)

Avian Influenza, or “Bird Flu”: What You Need to Know   

26 page document, in Q&A format.

As I often remind readers at Occ-Env-Med-L "ACSH is an organization routinely dubious about new claims of environmental health dangers". Many have pointed out that their funding sources include many commercial firms, often those involved in debates about accusations of pollution and environmental harm.

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• "Influenza Report"

This is a free resource, of quite incredible depth and ambition. It is a huge free publication, along with other huge free publications on "hot" medical issues like HIV, SARS, International Health. The comprehensive volume   is 225 pages, and is also available as a printed book for 25 €

The overarching view is that medical publishing will become free, virtual and collaborative, but NOT a wiki. In fact the team seem to work to be sure that their product is book-ish in content, depth and format.

Editors: Bernd Sebastian Kamps, Paris; Christian Hoffmann, Hamburg; Wolfgang Preiser, Tygerberg

1. Home
   
2. Influenza 2006
3. Avian Influenza
4. Virology
5. Pathogenesis and Immunology
6. Pandemic Preparedness  (contents for this chapter seems to be from Jan 2006)
7. Vaccines
8. Laboratory Findings
9. Clinical Presentation
10. Treatment and Prophylaxis

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• New Book, Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching , by Michael Greger, M.D.

Director, Public Health and Animal Agriculture, The Humane Society of the United States. The whole text is freely available, and all proceeds from the sale of the paper copies (& the author's speaking engagements) are to be donated to charity. The book includes 3168 references to other publications.   Submitted by the author to include in OHDEN

Table of Contents:

 

Foreword Introduction I. Storm Gathering 1. 1918 a. “Humanity has but three… b. Purple Death c. “[A] dead man has no substance… d. “They died in heaps… e. “This is a detective story… f. Resurrection 2. Master of Metamorphosis a. Tiny Terrorists b. “A hen is only an egg's way… c. Something in the Air d. Makings of a Killer e. “But what gave this pestilence… f. “There is nothing permanent g. Viral Sex 3. H5N1 a. Hong Kong, 1997 b. Fowl Plague c. Close Call d. “Next to a battle lost… e. What Happens to a Pandemic… f. Year of the Rooster 4. Playing Chicken a. “Where chicken soup used to cure… b. Cooking the Crap Out of It c. Handle with Care d. Soft-Boiled Truth e. Tastes Like Chicken 5. Worse Than 1918? a. Higher Human Learning b. Mano-a-Mano c. No Shot d. Bitter Pill e. Profit Motive f. Population Bust g. “Get rid of the ‘if.’… 6. When, Not If a. “It is coming.” b. Two Minutes to Midnight c. Flu Year’s Eve d. Catching the Flu e. Boots on the Ground

II. When Animal Viruses Attack 1. The Third Age a. Emerging Infectious Disease b. Their Bugs Are Worse… c. “Most and probably all… d. “Wherever the European has trod… e. The Plague Years 2. Man Made a. AIDS: A Clear-Cut Disaster b. Aggressive Symbiosis c. Wild Tastes d. Shipping Fever e. America’s Soft Underbelly f. Pet Peeves g. Pigs Barking Blood 3. Livestock Revolution a. Breeding Grounds b. Back to the Dark Ages c. Stomaching Emerging Disease d. Offal Truth e. Big Mac Attack f. Animal Bugs Forced to Joi n g. Last Great Plague 4. Tracing the Flight Path a. Pandora’s Pond b. Hog Ties c. Viral Swap Meets d. Gambling with Our Lives? e. Stopping Traffic 5. One Flu Over the Chicken’s Nest a. Acute Life Strategy b. “In our efforts to streamline… c. Chicken Surprise d. Out of the Trenches e. A Chicken in Every Pot f. “You have to say… 6. Coming Home to Roost a. Overcrowded b. Stressful c. Filthy d. Lack of Sunlight e. Bred to Be Sick f. Monoculture g. Acquired Immunodeficiency 7. Guarding the Henhouse a. Chicken Run b. Wishful Thinking c. Made in the USA

III. Pandemic Preparedness 1. Cooping Up Bird Flu a. Taming of the Flu b. Thai Curry Favor with Poultry… c. “We have as much chance… 2. Race Against Time a. “He who desires, but acts not… b. Chicken Little Gets the Flu c. Our Best Shot 3. Tamiflu a. “Access to medicines… b. Patent Nonsense c. End of the Line d. “The success or failure… e. Don't Need a Hurricane to Know… IV. Surviving the Pandemic 1. Don’t Wing It a. The A List b. Stretching the Stockpile c. Get It Now While Supplies Last d. Crash Course 2. Our Health in Our Hands a. Coming Soon to a Theater Near You b. Coughs and Sneezes… c. Washing Your Hands of the Flu d. There’s the Rub e. Masking Our Ignorance 3. Be Prepared a. Home Health Aid b. Collateral Damage c. Corpse Management d. Bird Flu Vultures Lining Up e. “We have learned very little… f. “In the absence of a pandemic… V. Preventing Future Pandemics 1. Tinderbox a. Trojan Duck b. One Stray Spark c. Biosafety Level Zero d. Snowflakes to an Avalanche e. Worst of Both Worlds 2. Reining in the Pale Horse a. “Extreme remedies… b. Shutting Down the Flu Factories c. “The single biggest threat… d. In a Flap e. The Price We Pay Topics References 1-3,168

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