How likely is a flu epidemic?
Major epidemics occur irregularly, sometimes only three years apart, sometimes longer. It is now more than six years since the last one and another seems overdue. Britain's Chief Medical Officer of Health has repeatedly warned of the likelihood of an epidemic and urged companies to prepare for one.
There has been a lot of publicity recently about the possible spread of avian flu (click on flupandemic for more information) As you will see, the consequences of this for British business could be extremely serious. However, there are many other types of flu - and even without a major epidemic, there are still many thousands of cases each year and you can still find your business disrupted. Indeed, the loss of only one key employee for several days due to flu can disrupt a business - needlessly when vaccination would have prevented this
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