HUNDREDS OF employees have volunteered at the World Health Organisation’s headquarters to help its efforts to co-ordinate a response to the flu virus. But what happens if they contract the flu themselves? Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, herself raised eyebrows in a recent meeting with senior colleagues when she coughed, and had to hastily assure her colleagues that she had not been infected.
The core WHO staff working under immense pressure under artificial light are particularly vulnerable. They have been working minimum 12-hour shifts for the past eight days. Michael Ryan, director of global alert and response, who supervises them, said that on Saturday, more than a week after 24-hour operations began, he began giving staff a day off in rotation to rest.
As visitors from high-incidence countries travel back to Geneva, those judged at risk will be advised to stay away from the office for two days while they are infectious but before any symptoms emerge.
But Mr Ryan acknowledges that during a pandemic it is almost inevitable that a third of the workforce may fall sick. The response? “Have lots and lots of back-up staff.” – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)