To help small businesses prepare for what many are predicting will be an unprecedented flu season, the U.S. Chamber has released a new business preparedness guide.

The Chamber's 16-page guide provides businesses with suggestions on how to keep employees healthy and maintain business operations during the upcoming flu season. In addition to a 10-point preparedness checklist, the guide includes a list of Internet sites, such as www.flu.gov/, that provide businesses with a wealth of detailed information on topics like federal guidance for workplace planning, vaccines, antiviral drugs, face masks, and respirators.

"This year's H1N1 influenza outbreak has demonstrated how rapidly a new strain of flu can emerge and spread around the world," says Ann Beauchesne, the Chamber's vice president of National Security and Emergency Preparedness. "While the initial wave of the H1N1 flu was moderate, the nation cannot let down its guard.  Federal officials warn that a second wave this coming fall and winter could be more widespread and severe."

Beauchesne unveiled It's Not Flu as Usual: An H1N1 Business Preparedness Guide at a National Preparedness Month meeting at Chamber headquarters on September 18. The meeting brought together government, nonprofit, and business leaders, including White House National Security Staff member Richard Reed, American Red Cross President of Humanitarian Services Gerald DeFrancisco, and FEMA Chief of Staff Jason McNamara, who called for strong partnerships between the business community and government at state, local, and federal levels. "Without the cooperation, input, and support of all these entities, we cannot be successful in strong emergency management and resiliency planning," McNamara said. 

Each winter, the flu kills approximately 36,000 to40,000 Americans, hospitalizes more than 200,000, and costs the U.S. economy more than $10 billion in lost productivity and direct medical expenses. Now health experts are warning about a far more lethal kind of flu — a pandemic flu that could kill more than half a million in the United States, hospitalize more than 2 million, and cost the U.S. economy a staggering $160 billion to$675 billion.

It's Not Flu as Usual is available at www.uschamber.com/pandemic