H1N1 Swine Flu has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

It’s not clear whether this pandemic will mean people die from it.

In another flu version those in their 20s and 30s were the most affected.

If you assume the WHO mortality rate projections of about 0.4 per cent and 40 million USA citizens infected you’d expect to see 160,000 people die.

Plan For A Pandemic

To survive you need to plan for a pandemic. If it turns out to be no massive problem that’s OK – but you were prepared for if it had gone the other way.

Think about how to minimize contact with other people, particularly infected people. Make sure that you designate someone who will look after those who might get infected.

Make sure everyone knows how to wash their hands properly, knows how to avoid getting flu and knows how to reduce the risk of spreading the infection. See the videos below:

You May Need An N95 Respirator

Actually this type of respirator is probably only needed if you need to go out into an infected area. They do have to be properly disposed of though – so read the instructions carefully.

This  useful article on face masks shows that surgical masks don’t reduce infection risk, whereas an N95 respirator does.

Try To Work From Home During A Pandemic

Agree with your boss whether you can work from home. Obviously sort out the logistics of doing so. Point out to the boss that it’s better to be home and productive rather than in the office and spreading infections to all employees – maybe other employees should work from home too?.

Going Shopping Is A Risk

Stockpile about 2 weeks worth of groceries, don’t use all frozen food in case the power goes.

Avoid going to supermarkets as there is likely to be numbers of unknowingly infected people walking around.

Banks May Close

If banks employees (who face the public) get infected there’s a good chance some branches will close.

So make sure you’ve got some cash in hand. ATMs are likely to suffer from people trying to get as much cash out as they can for the same reason.

Is The H1N1 The Pandemic We All Expected?

We still don’t know the answer to that one, and probably wont until Christmas 2009!

In the meantime, good health and good luck…