Swine flu likely to hit 15% of staff, HSE warns employers

THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has warned businesses to plan for an absenteeism rate of 15 per cent due to the H1N1 pandemic.

Staff would be absent from work due to illness or because they needed to care for others, the HSE advisory to businesses noted.

The absenteeism was “likely to have a significant impact in economic activity and business continuity”, the HSE said.

The pandemic was “currently gaining a foothold in this country and it will be a number of weeks before it is widespread”, the statement added, saying that now was the time to plan.

Businesses were advised to appoint a “pandemic co-ordinator” to plan for an outbreak. Issues to be dealt with by a co-ordinator include containment advice, decontamination and hygiene, and staff, supplier and customer communications.

Planning was “not solely a public health issue”, and all organisations needed to consider the implications for their business, the HSE statement said.

“Acknowledging that a significant problem is coming down the track for businesses is the first critical step. Planning for the pandemic is key, and adopting a commonsense approach is recommended to minimise the impact on the business community,” HSE director of communications Paul Connors said.

Latest figures from the Department of Health indicate a further five cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the State.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases of the virus here to 177. Of these cases, 21 are known to have been transmitted within the country.

A case of H1N1 has been confirmed on-campus at University College Dublin, Belfield, a UCD spokeswoman said yesterday. It is understood the sick person is a foreign language student studying at the Belfield campus. All staff at UCD were yesterday sent an e-mail to inform them of symptoms, prevention and the university’s plan to deal with the H1N1 virus.

A sabbatical officer at the Students Union has also caught the virus. The officer has not been on the Belfield campus since contracting swine flu. He attended a training session held by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) last week. The USI is contacting officers and speakers who attended the session, as a small number of delegates were diagnosed with the virus.

In France, 47 teenagers attending a language course near Paris were diagnosed with H1N1. Another 17 cases were diagnosed at another school near Paris, where Italian teenagers had been attending a language course, local officials said. – (Additional reporting Reuters)