Though U.S. companies view an influenza pandemic as a real threat to the nation, two-thirds believe they have inadequately planned to protect themselves in the event of an outbreak, according to this survey from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and The ERISA Industry Committee.

Among the key findings:

• Sixty-six percent of respondents said their company had not adequately planned to protect itself from a pandemic flu outbreak, while 14 percent said they had adequately planned and 20 percent were undecided.
• Fifty-eight percent said they are not confident their company is prepared to manage a pandemic flu outbreak, while 18 percent said they are confident they are prepared and 24 percent were undecided.
• Seventy-three percent said their company could use help understanding what it should do to plan for a pandemic flu outbreak, while 14 percent said they did not need help and 13 percent were undecided.
• Thirty-nine percent believed there wasn’t much a company could do to prepare itself for a pandemic flu outbreak, while 41 percent disagreed with that statement and 20 percent were undecided.

A pandemic influenza is a global outbreak of the flu that occurs when a new virus emerges for which there is little immunity among humans. In the 20th century, there were three pandemics: 1918 (500,000 deaths in the United States, and at least 50 million deaths worldwide), 1957 (70,000 deaths in the United States and up to 2 million deaths worldwide), and 1968 (34,000 deaths in the United States, and 700,000 deaths worldwide). Read the related press release, or learn more from the PDF file attachment below: