Workplace likely to be pandemic's front line

Flight attendants pack Tamiflu to prepare themselves for a bird flu pandemic -- despite concerns about shortages.

By H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune

Last update: February 1, 2006 - 7:58 PM

Sue Ludwig is a Northwest Airlines flight attendant who carries Tamiflu on her trips these days. That's the drug doctors use to treat avian flu.

Virginia Cherne is another, and she figures that at least half the attendants she flies with do the same.

Those who regularly fly to parts of the world where bird flu is spreading believe that their work puts them right up front if the disease eventually begins spreading among humans.

These attendants don't see anyone else watching out for them, so they are taking their own precautions.

It's hard to know how many other professionals are also not waiting for official help and instructions. Pilots? Border guards? Traveling salesmen? Poultry butchers?

The Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA) is preparing a recommendation for members on carrying Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that has increased survival rates for some types of avian flu.

Ludwig expects it to say something like this: Tamiflu is a good thing to have on hand but it's a long way from a "cure."

Ludwig is PFAA's occupational and environmental health coordinator, tracking things such as air quality and contagion in airplanes. She flies to Asia out of her Detroit base.

"We know the government expects the flu to come in by airplane, so the idea that flight attendants are not first responders [like doctors and police] is just wrong," she said.

The flight attendants' schedules often keep them away from home for three to five days at a stretch, and Tamiflu works only if started within the first 48 hours of an outbreak.

"What I'm really scared of is getting trapped, because the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] will shut everything down," said Cherne, based in Minneapolis. "I'll be somewhere in a hotel full of sick people."

Virgin Atlantic Airways, based in Britain, bought 10,000 Tamiflu doses for its employees, saying the company considers them to be on the front lines of any pandemic.

But some health officials criticized such a move, citing limited supplies. They said hoarding by the "worried well" could mean shortages for the sick. In addition, the treatment regimen might be lengthening from five days to eight -- so attendants who carry the original five-day course of pills will find themselves three days short.

Despite such concerns, a State Department travel advisory in December encouraged Americans traveling or living abroad to consult a physician about obtaining Tamiflu.

A big fear is that widespread use of Tamiflu will cause the bird flu virus to mutate, becoming resistant to the drug, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

That's what viruses do.

A CDC study three years ago found that only 2 percent of 120 flu strains tested were resistant to two widely used drugs; last year, 91 percent were resistant.

Business must cooperate with government, Osterholm said. That's why his policy center has organized a national summit, "Business Planning for Pandemic Influenza," Feb. 14-15 in Minneapolis.

"We're trying to address this issue head-on," Osterholm said.

It might turn out that avian flu does not threaten the world, he said.

"But a pandemic is coming," he said. "They are like earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. They occur."

One of the biggest decisions will be who must show up to keep society running -- medical professionals, vaccine producers and police almost certainly, he said. They should be at the top of the list for drugs, if there are shortages.

But other possibilities are tech staffs to tend to the Internet, which suddenly will be expected to be everyone's connection to everything, and people who transport necessities such as food, water and medicine.

None of that can come too soon for worried working people.

"Once this starts, it's going to go everywhere," Cherne said. "I'm not paranoid. I just have genuine concerns."

What are your workplace issues? You can reach H.J. Cummins at workandlife @startribune.com. Please sign your e-mails; no names will appear in print without prior approval.