There's been so much talk about the H1N1 swine influenza, you would think that it's already here. It's not, but it's coming soon, and so far, all signs indicate that companies are ready for it.

A new survey by the Pandemic Prevention Council (PPC) of 1,500 organizations finds that over 75 percent of respondents reported their companies have a business plan. More than 80 percent report they have contingency plans for H1N1. More than half report that their senior management told their staff to prepare for a possible swine flu epidemic, reports CSOonline.com.

The PPC survey found that the public sector is more prepared than the private sector. More than 70 percent of public organizations had plans to deal with the H1N1 flu threat while only 56 percent of private organizations did.

"The collaborative approach is more popular in government, where 70.6 percent considered contingency planning the responsibility of all functions, as compared to 58.0 percent in the private sector," the report states. "In the private sector, however, human resources, although still only secondarily responsible, leads planning efforts more often than in public sector organizations."

In many cases, businesses are preparing for their workers to telecommute in the event of a high-level of flu. Along with that comes the importance of a secure computer system to keep the operation humming and free from cyberattacks.

For more on pandemic planning:
- check out this CSOonline.com article
- and this Washington Post article

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