What Building Managers and Owners Can Do

Swine Flu, or Swine Influenza A(H1N1), is potentially just the latest version of Pandemic Influenza outbreaks that periodically strike the world’s human population over the course of history. In the last century alone there have been three pandemics - a major outbreak in 1918 (40 million dead), followed by another in 1957 (two million dead) and one in 1968 (one million dead). Viruses often circulate in animals, particularly birds and in some mammals, such as pigs, before mutating into a form infectious to humans - and then mutating again to become highly transmissible between humans.  Swine Flu is of greatest concern at present because multiple human cases have been witnessed with the infection passing from person to person in multiple countries.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Swine Flu as a Phase five out of its six phase classification. 

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short. All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans.

Governments and world and national bodies such as the WHO and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) share the burden of preparing a large scale prevention and response plan for Pandemic Influenza outbreaks, but what standards of care can be expected from individual building owners and operators, and what role can they play in preventing and minimizing the spread of Swine Flu in their buildings?

The Building Owner and Manager role breaks into four components:

• Maintaining Hygiene Standards on Building Surfaces
• Maintaining Ventilation and Filtration Standards in their HVAC Systems
• Integrating Social Distancing with Business Continuity
• Asset Protection via Good Documentation and Communication

Healthy Buildings International has developed detailed guidelines to cover each of these functions for our clients. Contact us for more details on how we can help you respond to this emerging indoor environmental problem.