GE Energy Pandemic Planning February 2006

1. GE Energy Pandemic Planning February 2006

2. Pandemic Threats to General Electric think globally… Just in time inventory improves cash and ROI but makes you vulnerable to interruption in the supply chain...immediately Outsourcing decreases input costs but increases process risk if there is mass illness in India, China, Indonesia…. e.g. IT, finance, help desks, time critical functions

3. Pandemic Threats to General ElectricKeep thinking globally… A new Nigerian power plant has GE turbines and Hitachi generators, Harbin civil engineering, Nigerian and Bangladeshi laborers, ABB transformers, insulators from Toshiba, pumps from Cummings, steel from Tata…..

4. Spanish Flu 1918-1919: 1 Billion cases ? 26,000,000 deaths?

5. Died: October 31, 1918

6. Die kleine Stadt II Seated Woman

7. GE employees are not at significant risk at present Prudent Planning is the key to Success

8. Health Services Pandemic Planning Process Map #1 Pandemic Declaration Is there widespread human illness causing disability and death (WHO phase 5) ? Has CDC and/or WHO declared a pandemic (WHO phase 6) ? Pandemic underway, Response Team meets daily Yes Yes No No Activate Response Team No Pandemic

9. Spanish Influenza Outbreak Camp Grant, Illinois Hospitalization of Recruits 10,000 3200 1,000 711 Log Scale 194 371 100 10 3 1 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 September 1918

10. Health Services Pandemic Planning Process Maps #2 Case Definition and Follow-Up Based on easily determined factors, a “case” is defined Does this person have a fever > 38° C? Time and urgency will not allow MD visit and lab tests No Assumption: Pandemic in progress Not flu e.g. Yes Does this person have cough and malaise? Site Designee adds to list, Contacts employee Put mask on employee and send home* Report case to Site Designee Not flu now, re-evaluate in 4 hours Yes No Meets Flu case definition Site Designee sends list to Health Services Every 24 hrs Contact management plan started** Pandemic Tracking System (PTS) cases/absenteesism/case mgmt tracking Begin contact tracing at work *Give employee home care guidelines, process map for ER or MD visit, hot line number and web page url ** May include isolation, anti-viral drug and/or symptom surveillance. Data base and notification systems

11. Health Services Pandemic Planning Process Maps #3 Site Illness Management Distribute illness questionnaire to all employees/visitors Assumption:Pandemic in progress Quarantine strategy approved Cases of flu are in local community Site designee will E-mail or call employees to give home care instructions Do Not Enter GE Site, phone supervisor or GE contact Do you meet exclusion criteria? Go to work- station or conduct GE visit Did employee have flu? Yes No Yes No Close case in PTS Have >5 days elapsed since illness began? Yes Yes Yes Return to work Yes Is he or she now free of fever? Has cough stopped? No No No Stay home Contact designee in 48 hrs Stay home Contact designee in 48 hrs Return on Day 5

12. Health Services Pandemic Planning “Carry, Cover..Wash & Go” • Use of a catchy slogan to remind everyone to: • Carry paper facial tissues during the pandemic - every day • Cover your cough (tissues, handkerchiefs, – rather than hands) • Wash hands often with soap and water, use paper towels • Go home if you have fever over 101º and a cough • CCWG Posters/email/web communications plan throughout facilities in geographically affected areas

13. Health Services Pandemic Planning Greatest challenge is balancing the response to the threat When do we go to battle stations? Exclude visitors? When do we close a plant? Restrict travel? When do we relax?

14. Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, mask or hand. • Clean any surfaces you have coughed or sneezed on. • In GE clinics, inform the receptionist or nurse immediately if you have a respiratory infection. • Avoid public areas, including those at work, if you have cough and fever > 38˚.

15. Current WHO Phase of Pandemic Alert • Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968 • WHO uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat and of the need to launch progressively more intense preparedness activities. • Each phase of alert coincides with a series of recommended activities to be undertaken by WHO, the international community, governments, and industry • The world is presently in phase 3: a new influenza virus subtype is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainable among humans.

16. Influenza Mortality in Perspective “The influenza commonly called "Spanish flu" killed more people than the guns of World War I. Estimates put the worldwide death toll at 21,642,274. Some one billion people were affected by the disease -- half of the total human population. It came at a time when 19 nations were at war and the disruption, stress, and privation of war certainly aided the flu's transmission. It killed people on every continent except Antarctica, with the most lives lost in Asia and the highest percentage of population killed in India. From August 1918, when cases of the flu started looking abnormally high, until the following July when they returned to about normal, 20 million Americans became sick and more than 500,000 died. In October, 1918, the flu reached its peak, killing about 195,000 Americans. About 57,000 American soldiers died from influenza while the U.S. was at war; about 53,500 died in battle.” PBS Science Odyssey