Introduction
As the world becomes more accessible and globalization pushes institutions into far-flung corners of the world, there emerge a number of potential events that can have a devastating impact on corporations. It is not just globalization that creates these threats, but also events close to the center that can have a profoundly negative impact of the health of organizations. We divide these events into epidemic and pandemic threats, natural and human disasters and the consequences of war and terrorism. We have developed a process that leads to a full evaluation of corporate readiness to handle health and security threats.
Pandemic and Epidemic Threats
- Avian Flu
- Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: There are 1,407 recognized species of microbiological organisms that cause human disease and 58% of them are zoonotic (i.e. they arise out of a broad range of animal hosts). Of these, 177 are regarded as emerging and reemerging. More than 38% of these emerging and reemerging pathogens are viruses. Even if a virus, bacterium or mold is capable of infecting and causing disease in humans, most do not cause major epidemics because the capacity for animal-to-human and human-to-human transmission are low. However, some are deadly and spread with ferocity through human populations – among the latter are: influenza, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and malaria.
Natural and Human Disasters
- Weather-related events: Many of these events are triggered by nature and exacerbated by human behavior. They include hurricanes, tsunami, earthquakes, mudslides, floods, volcanoes and large-scale fires.
- Large-scale industrial accidents such as nuclear power reactors disasters, transportation disasters and accidental chemical spills and leakages.
Consequences of War
Terrorism
- Biological attacks that include the use of weaponized microbiological organisms such as anthrax and smallpox.
- Chemical attacks that contaminate the air, water and food supply.
- Nuclear attacks
- Bombing