Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the western Pacific, plots the spread of avian flu. Credit: A. FAVILA/AP

Has your employer thought about how to protect its staff and maintain essential services in the event of a global influenza pandemic? If not, it's worth noting how seriously the organization perhaps best informed about the threat — the World Health Organization (WHO) — is taking the possibility. Its own plan calls for a stockpile of antiviral drugs large enough to treat up to 30% of its staff and their families.

Experts agree that the H5N1 avian flu virus, which is endemic in southeast Asia and is fanning out across Russia and Kazakhstan, could trigger a human pandemic. The WHO's internal plan, a copy of which has been obtained by Nature, warns that all prerequisites for the start of a pandemic have been met except one: the establishment of efficient and sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The document, dated 30 May 2005, notes that if a pandemic occurs, the WHO has a duty of care to its staff and their dependents, and to maintain the agency's essential functions. It adds that if a pandemic is declared, “it is very likely that all stocks of medicine useful against influenza, particularly oseltamivir, will be rapidly exhausted”. It suggests that WHO offices stockpile the drug for 8,000 employees.

Each WHO office should have enough oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to give a five-day course to 30% of its staff and their dependents, the plan suggests. “Some countries may choose to stockpile more, but should be aware that it may become difficult to reserve these excess stores for only the use of UN personnel and families during a severe community-wide outbreak.” It also advises that, “because antivirals will become valuable commodities during a pandemic, they should be stored in a secure place”.

According to the document, the WHO's headquarters in Geneva is initially stockpiling 1,000 five-day courses of oseltamivir. The plan also lists a series of secondary measures such as stockpiling antibiotics, syringes and face masks, and instructs offices to consider how to convert warehouses, meeting rooms and gymnasiums into temporary wards.

The United States is expected to release its national pandemic plan in the next few weeks. France and Britain have ordered drug stockpiles to cover a quarter of their citizens, close to WHO's internal target, but the US stockpile currently covers just 1% of its population.