Pandemic Toolkit website to provide emergency preparedness info for businesses | 09.20.2007 | 09:30:18 | Views: 6303 | ID: September 20 '07: A new website has been developed by the Roche company to help provide businesses with information to promote businesses continuity in the face of a pandemic emergency. The website, called Pandemic Toolkit, was developed, and is the product of company officials working with federal health agencies over the last several years, the Chief Executive Officer of Roche George Abercrombie said in a speech in Tennessee recently. Abercrombie's comments to the more than 100 business leaders who gathered at the Economic Club of Memphis, focused on the need for continuity and preparation plans to be in place to mitigate loss of revenue, community services and a decline in employee health. "Influenza pandemics are not static events like a hurricane or tornado," Abercrombie said, "nor are they confined to a specific area. Pandemics come in multiple waves, each one affecting a given area from four to twelve weeks. During the first wave, officials expect 30 percent of people will become ill. Here in Memphis, that's 300,000 residents who will get very sick in a very short period of time, inundating emergency rooms already strained to near capacity." Abercrombie also cited a report released by Trust for America's Health - sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts through the U.S. Pandemic Preparedness Initiative - which found that a pandemic could result in about $13.7 billion loss in revenue. Roche's Abercrombie has worked to raise pandemic preparedness awareness in the past with similar presentations in Los Angeles.
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