# 2131
Nearly three years after the alarm bells began ringing around the globe about the need to prepare for a possible pandemic, there obviously is still a lot of work to do.
In Japan, a think tank mailed questionnaires to roughly 4,000 listed companies asking about their preparedness for a pandemic.
Out of 4,000 questionnaires sent only 448, or about 11%, chose to respond.
The results, as you will see, were far from encouraging.
This report from the Japan Times.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Many public firms not ready for flu pandemic
Kyodo News
A majority of listed companies surveyed have devised no countermeasures for a new type of influenza that some fear may develop, a think tank survey showed Wednesday.
According to the InterRisk Research Institute & Consulting Inc. survey, 52 percent of 448 firms surveyed said they have no plans to work out measures against a possible new influenza pandemic for which people have little immunity.
The government has been urging companies to work out steps against a possible pandemic because such an event could paralyze the country.
The think tank, a research arm of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., mailed questionnaires to all listed companies in Japan — about 4,000 — from May to June, and received responses from 448, including 194 in the manufacturing sector.
Of the 448 firms, 10 percent said they have already worked out flu measures, 14 percent are working on them and 23 percent plan to do so.
Among companies with no plans to compile measures, 55 percent said devising effective steps would be beyond the capability of an individual company and 45 percent replied they have little knowledge about symptoms of a new influenza.
Twenty-four percent said a new flu has yet to break out in Japan and 22 percent said coping with the disease is the responsibility of individual employees.
"The survey provided shocking results," said Shigeki Honda, an InterRisk official in charge of research and development. "Socially responsible corporate entities should work out measures against a flu pandemic."
While this poll was conducted in Japan, it is probably fairly representative of the level of preparedness and awareness in most industrialized nations of the world.
