What Building Managers and Owners Can Do

Bird Flu, or Avian Flu, 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. Avian flu is of greatest concern at present because there is a strain of the avian flu virus (H5N1) that began to impact birds in late 2003. Between then and the end of 2005 there have been a little over 100 cases of human influenza (and more than 60 deaths) from this particular strain. Of six phases used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the progression of an outbreak, as of June 2006 this is currently classed as Phase Three, "Pandemic Alert" phase, where the "species jump" has been seen to occur but there is no or very limited human to human transmission. Whether a pandemic flu originates from this particular strain of bird flu, or from other origins, the question is not whether there will an epidemic, but when.

Governments and world and national bodies such as the WHO and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 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 Avian 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.