IAEM Asia: news for emergency managers June 2009

                                  In This Issue
                                 Incident Command System (ICS) course in Asia
                                Is Tamiflu “better” than Relenza?
                                  Global Disease Information

BCM standard discovered in Malaysia

Incident Command System (ICS) course in Asia
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) presents its first 5-day ICS course from 10th to 16th August 2009 on the island of Phuket in Thailand. ADPC collaborates with the U.S. Forest Service to teach ICS to senior- and mid-level emergency and disaster managers in Asia. The course covers seven (7) modules: 1. Intro to ICS; 2. Leadership & Management; 3. Delegation of Authority; 4. Functional Areas in ICS; 5. Briefings; 6. Organizational Flexibility, and 7. Transfer of Command.

International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) members get USD $200 off the course fee; email Chris Tan at IAEM Asia for an IAEM sponsorship form.

Is Tamiflu “better” than Relenza?
I can find no clinical evidence that Roche’s Tamiflu® is more effective than GlaxoSmithKline's less-prescribed Relenza® against Type A influenza like H1N1 and H5N1. I can find abundant evidence, however, that Switzerland-based Roche has run marketing circles around U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) by emphasizing the convenience of swallowing a Tamiflu capsule over the hassle of inhaling Relenza® powder. Both require a prescription.

Tamiflu sales in 2008 were USD $564 million, down from $2.8 billion in 2006. Relenza’s worldwide sales in 2008 were just $103 million, down from $522 million in 2007, its biggest year ever.

Both GSK and Roche point out that doctors and patients prefer to prevent influenza infections with annual vaccinations rather than treat influenza by swallowing or inhaling antiviral drugs like Tamiflu® and Relenza®.

This is an excerpt. Read the full 830-word article at Nathaniel Forbes’ BCP Confidential blog http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/bcp/0,3800011228,63010743,00.htm

What’s it like to be near to a volcano when it explodes? Have a look at these photos of undersea volcanic explosions posted by Boston.com’s Alan Taylor, taken from sea level near the Pacific Island of Tonga.

A 7.6 Mw earthquake near Tonga in March at coordinates 23.050°S, 174.668°W may have initiated the eruption. Paste those coordinates into Google Earth to see where that is.

Here’s some instructions on how to find earthquakes in Google Earth.

I live on an island, and those pictures and this video (90 seconds) make me happy I don’t live near a volcano. The good news: probably not a lot of business impact from an eruption in the middle of the ocean.

Global Disease Information
The World Health Organization (WHO) publishes Disease Outbreak News every business day in English for this list of diseases, including Influenza A (H1N1). The information is available by country, too. Sometimes there’s a snazzy presentation-ready map for the day, too. Update 49 for H1N1 was published on Monday, June 15.

My thanks to IAEM Hong Kong Representative and Kenyon International Regional Planning Manager David Gault for the links.

BCM standard discovered in Malaysia
Malaysia’s national standards company, SIRIM Berhad, could probably use some marketing help on behalf of its MS1970, Malaysia’s national BCM standard.

Yes, there is one. It was released two years ago in May 2007. It takes some effort to discover that you can buy MS1970 at the Malaysian Standards Online site for forty (40) Malaysian ringgit (USD $11.00), but note the warning at the bottom of that screen that the standard can only be downloaded in Malaysia. That may explain why its existence has been unknown to the outside world.

Like the Business Continuity Institute’s BCM lifecycle, there are five phases in the MS1970 BCM lifecycle (Figure 1, page 8). MS1970 lists and explains eleven (11) BCM processes and describes objectives, assumptions, results and actions for each of those processes in a MS1970 Reference Matrix (Table 1, page 2). Processes in MS1970 include “Crisis management plan,” “Establishment of alternate site” and “BCM audit”, for example. Each cell of the matrix lists a section number for reference; that’s very handy.

This sentence in the published standard caught my eye: “The BIA is a tedious process but is crucial for the success of the project.” (Section 6.1) Now, that’s a novel sales pitch for a standard.

Maybe I am the only person in Southeast Asia who thinks that BCM standards should not be state secrets. I think they should be given away freely and widely as a manifestation of your tax dollars at work. I may also be the only person in Southeast Asia who thinks that basic principles of marketing – clear, simple statements of features, advantages and benefits - should be employed to promote standards. Instead, they are buried like a Lost Ark in a bureaucratic Temple of Doom.

This is an excerpt. Read the full 1,800-word article at Nathaniel Forbes’ BCP Confidential blog http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/bcp/0,3800011228,63009551,00.htm
or http://www.calamityprevention.com/blog/?p=92