Roche In America To Issue Tamiflu To All Its Employees

Roche has been instrumental in helping other big corporations...

The manufacturer of what is believed to be the best bird flu drug available namely Tamiflu has given a course of the drug to all of its American employees. In all Roche Pharmaceuticals has over 5,000 employees in America and the latest move to give them all Tamiflu was not done as a perk for boosting morale among the workforce but was part of a detailed anti pandemic bird flu plan.

Roche has been instrumental in helping other big corporations in America and worldwide prepare for the bird flu pandemic and has given advice on how to control the spread of the H5N1 virus as well as to sell enough Tamiflu courses to protect the employees of vital corporations involved in essential services. If say 25% of the workforce were affected by bird flu it could have a major impact on telecommunications, transport and other things that could bring a country to standstill. Roche will be heavily involved in getting Tamiflu to infected areas and therefore the decision to give all of its employees Tamiflu was part of their own pandemic preparedness plan.

Roche has also given all of its US employees special doctor visits at work and advice about all the aspects of the bird flu virus as well as a course of Tamiflu. Tamiflu is a prescription drug and therefore the need for a doctor to be involved was essential before Roche could give Tamiflu to its employees. Roche has also been making special lists of all the employees that it will need and those that it won’t need in the event of an outbreak. It is a very prudent thing for any company to be aware of whom it really needs and whom it doesn’t in the event of a pandemic as the government may advise people to stay at home and not venture outdoors until the pandemic has passed.

Since the first cases of bird flu in Asia the official figures from the World Health Organisation show that 277 people have been infected and 168 have died from the disease.