UK influenza pandemic exercise findings

The report - a section of which focuses on business continuity and flu pandemic - followed 'Exercise Winter Willow', which involved over 5,000 people from government, industry and the voluntary sector. The exercise took place at the beginning of this year.

The Cabinet Office said the exercise had identified "most clearly" that throughout any pandemic business continuity would be a "significant challenge to all organisations, within all tiers."

The report said it had highlighted the need for good recovery plans for managing the backlog of routine work and the need to consider increased demands on some services – particularly support and communications.

There was also a need to understand the practical difficulties and limitations in home working, particularly the large numbers of people working from home contending with increased internet use, resulting in very slow-moving internet traffic.

Government guidance

The Government has already published guidance on the UK resilience website to assist businesses with their planning. However the report revealed that this would now be developed further "to reflect learning from the exercise."

In addition the Department of Health would develop specific guidance on business continuity for health services within the next 12 months.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "Exercise Winter Willow has helped to bring us closer to answering some of the difficult questions that the threat of an influenza pandemic poses. It also raised a number of new issues but this is to be expected and welcomed.

"We are dealing with a constantly evolving threat - indeed, we may never find all the answers until the next pandemic virus actually emerges. Exercises such as Winter Willow are an essential part of ensuring that our plans are both robust and flexible."

The report can be downloaded from the UK Resilience website - see link above/right. A link to the Cabinet Office's current business continuity guidance is also provided.

Other threats

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that influenza is not the only potentially disastrous health pandemic that could impact on a global scale.

This year's WHO 'World Health Report' revealed that since 1967, at least 39 new pathogens had been identified, including HIV, Ebola haemorrhagic fever, Marburg fever and SARS.

It added that other "centuries-old threats" such as malaria and tuberculosis, as well as influenza, continued to pose a threat to health through a combination of mutation, rising resistance to antimicrobial medicines and weak health systems.

High and rapid mobility of people was a major factor in the potential spread of disease, with airlines now carrying more than 2 billion passengers a year, said the WHO report.