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The Spanish Flu 1918–1920 saw a high degree of excess mortality among young and healthy adults. The purpose of this paper is a further exploration of the hypothesis that high mortality risk during The Spanish Flu in Copenhagen was associated with early life exposure to The Russian Flu 1889–1892.

Based on 37,000 individual-level death records in a new unique database from The Copenhagen City Archives combined with approximate cohort-specific population totals interpolated from official censuses of population, the author compiles monthly time series on all-cause mortality rates 1916–1922 in Copenhagen by gender and one-year birth cohorts. The author then analyses birth cohort effects on mortality risk during The Spanish Flu using regression analysis.

The author finds support for hypotheses relating early life exposure to The Russian Flu to mortality risk during The Spanish Flu. Some indications of possible gender heterogeneity during the first wave of The Spanish Flu – not found in previous studies – should be a topic for future research based on data from other countries.

Due to lack of individual-level death records with exact dates of birth and death, previous studies on The Spanish Flu in Denmark and many other countries have relied on data with lower birth cohort resolutions than the one-year birth cohorts used in this study. The analysis in this paper illustrates how archival Big Data can be used to gain new insights in studies on historical pandemics.

Purpose – This chapter considers the social politics of H5N1 (“avian influenza”), the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and the response to it within the context of the history of pandemic influenzas and the continuing need for robust preventative public health systems more generally. In particular, the author considers how the borders between nations, species, and individuals are thrown into relief and called into question by influenza outbreaks and their management.

Methodology/approach – This work relies on literature review, media research, and critical and interpretative sociological methods.

Findings – While panic surrounding new and potentially highly virulent influenza strains is reasonable, such panic is not sustainable and belies the fact that every year presents the danger of a pandemic. This chapter argues that, if public health systems only respond to immediate panic and fail to consider how quickly airborne diseases can cross all sorts of borders, they do not attend to the real need for far-seeing, long-term, internationally collaborative disease prevention and disaster preparedness.

Contribution to the field – The author offers a critical and wellness- and prevention-oriented perspective on what priorities should be emphasized in the rapidly growing fields of disaster studies and disaster preparedness, which, by their nature, tend to be crisis oriented and focused on the micro-term, with planning done on a case-by-case basis. Such a narrow focus can render preventative health systems inflexible and unable to rise to the challenge of a disease that can spread easily through casual contact.

Repeated influenza outbreaks are surprisingly rare in prison settings worldwide, a factor that has made it superfluous, to date, to develop contingency plans for responding to prison‐based influenza epidemics. However, the influenza outbreak that occurred in an Australian prison in 2000 has highlighted the appropriateness of developing an outbreak plan, not least because of the security implications of a widespread prison influenza epidemic. Using reported attack rates and morbidity profiles of the 2000 Australian prison influenza outbreak to develop scenarios, the authors estimated the cost ‐ benefit of mass vaccination and antiviral chemotherapy approaches for the control of hypothetical widespread influenza outbreaks in New South Wales prisons, occurring at an average frequency of once every 10 years. It was concluded that, from the perspectives of maintaining prison security as well as health care services’ provision to prisoners, early antiviral chemotherapy for symptomatic individuals will have more favourable cost ‐ benefit ratios than a mass vaccination approach for controlling prison‐based influenza outbreaks that occur in line with this model.

The author aims to assess the spread of avian flu, its impact on businesses operating in the USA and overseas, and the measures required for corporate preparedness.

Six Sigma DMAIC process is used to analyze avian flu's impact and how an epidemic could affect large US business operations worldwide. Wal‐Mart and Dell Computers were chosen as one specializes in retail and the other manufacturing.

The study identifies avian flu pandemic risks including failure modes on Wal‐Mart and Dell Computers global operations. It reveals the factors that reinforce avian‐flu pandemic's negative impact on company global supply chains. It also uncovers factors that balance avian‐flu pandemic's impact on their global supply chains.

Avian flu and its irregularity affect the research outcomes because its spread could fluctuate based on so many factors that could come into play. Further, the potential cost to manufacturers and other supply chain partners is relatively unknown. As a relatively new phenomenon, quantitative data were not available to determine immediate costs.

In this decade, the avian influenza H5N1 virus has killed millions of poultry in Asia, Europe and Africa. This flu strain can infect and kill humans who come into contact with this virus. An avian influenza H5N1 outbreak could lead to a devastating effect on global food supply, business services and business operations.

The study provides guidance on what global business operation managers can do to prepare for such events, as well as how avian flu progression to a pandemic can disrupt such operations. This study raises awareness about avian flu's impact on businesses and humans and also highlights the need to create contingency plans for corporate preparedness to avoid incurring losses.

Major technological innovations are usually associated with central R&D facilities in large companies and leading edge technologies that are key to unlocking business opportunities in promising, embryonic markets. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze several factors that determine the success of a major process innovation in a mature but changing industry. The paper furthermore shows that the periphery of a company can be as innovative as headquarters and central R&D‐labs.

This paper is based upon an in depth case study of the “Business Group Influenza” (BGI) at Solvay, a multinational company in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry based in Brussels. BGI turned a mature business into a growth engine for the company through the development of a cell culture technology. Next, we identified 20 success factors of innovations based on extensive literature research. These factors can be placed in four main categories; strategic factors, market environment factors, development process factors, and organizational factors. In this paper, we apply these key drivers to the renewal of Solvay's influenza vaccine business.

It is found that a systematic analysis of the case using the 20 key drivers allows us to evaluate the management of this major innovation process. In this way, one can easily spot the drivers that need more attention or require another management approach. We also find that the management of attention of the top‐management is crucial in long‐term innovation projects.

The contribution of this study is twofold. On the one hand, the rejuvenation of Solvay's influenza vaccine business shows that changing markets conditions in combination with a breakthrough process technology can turn a cash cow into a growth business. On the other hand, the systematic analysis of key innovation drivers allows one to identify the strength and weaknesses in the management of a long‐term, breakthrough process innovation.

Children with rheumatic disease, who are infected with influenza, have an increased rate of complications. These complications can be reduced by improving the flu vaccination rate. This paper's aim is to document the authors' purpose of increasing the influenza vaccination rate through information technology (IT) intervention in this high risk population of patients.

The authors retrospectively reviewed the electronic health records (EHR) of three yearly cohorts (2007, 2008, and 2009) of rheumatology clinic patients from a large pediatric hospital for evidence of influenza vaccination. They introduced an automatic best practice reminder intervention in patients' EHR from September 2009 to April 2010. Using Clarity Report Write for EPIC, each chart was examined for evidence of influenza vaccination to test for vaccination rate difference among the cohorts. The authors employed logistic regression equations to control for possible confounders using SAS 9.1.3.

There was a significant difference in the probability of being vaccinated before and after intervention (p value <0.0001).The vaccination rate increased from 5.9 percent in 2007, 7.8 percent in 2008 and to 25.5 percent in 2009. During all three years, individual attending's contribution and ethnicity of patients had significant effects on vaccination rate. Confounders such as age, sex, insurance status and distance travelled from clinic had no effect on the vaccination rate.

EHR‐embedded information in past studies has been only modestly effective in improving care for many chronic conditions. The automatic best practice reminder for flu‐vaccine appears to be effective for changing physician's behaviors and improving the vaccination rate in rheumatology clinics.

Epidemiologists are concerned the next deadly global cognition will be a new kind of deadly flu which humans have no resistance. Since the 1960s, their alarm has been focused on a bird (avian) virus (H5N1). This virus is generally harmless in its host species, but it is extremely deadly when contracted by humans. H5N1 mutates quickly and tends to pick up genes from flu viruses that affect other species. The flu is far more contagious and harder to contain than the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus. It is projected that 30‐40 per cent of the population would be infected in a H5N1 flu pandemic, and as many as one‐third would die. The 1918 Spanish flu caused 20 to 50 million deaths world wide. One scientist observed that the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic could have caused civilisation to disappear within a few weeks. Currently, more than 50 million chickens have been slaughtered in eight Asian countries in efforts to curb the spread of avian influenza. This article examines the roots and dangers of the potential avian influenza pandemic, examining the business and social ramifications that could ensue if the worst case scenario occurs.

This study investigates interrelationships between environmental sector volatility and influence of organisational stakeholders. Environmental sectors considered include economic, political, social, technological, and competitive. Stakeholder groups assessed are customers, stockholders, creditors, suppliers of key materials and employees. Pearson correlations are used to identify significant associations between: (1) stakeholder groups, (2) environmental sectors and (3) stakeholder groups and environmental sectors. Numerous significant associations are identified between influence of stakeholders and volatility of environmental sectors. Regression analyses are performed to determine the predictive power of sector volatility on stakeholder influence. Significant models were formed for predicting influence of three stakeholder groups; customers, creditors and employees.

The aim of this paper is to identify factors (i.e. age, gender, ethnicity, type of medical facility, geographical location, etc.) associated with physicians' prescribing behavior when treating influenza in the USA. The study aims to examine why the number of antiviral prescriptions remains substandard.

Data were obtained from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for each influenza season between the years of 2005-2008. Bivariate analyses and two models of multivariate logistic regression analyses (one with no fixed effect and the other including year as a fixed effect) were used to analyze the data.

The results from this study revealed that among family practice physicians, 40.5 percent prescribed antiviral medications to patients presenting with influenza while 59.5 percent prescribed another form of medication. Antibiotics comprised 41.3 percent of the prescriptions for treatment of influenza. Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that race (White; p=0.023), type of health setting (private solo/group practice; p=0.041), employment status (owner; p=0.046), and metropolitan location (metropolitan statistical area; p=0.032) were all significantly associated with prescribing antivirals. Patients' expected source of payment (private insurance) and geographical location (Midwest) of health facility were marginally associated with prescribing antivirals.

By identifying factors associated with physicians' prescribing practices of antiviral medications, a more timely diagnosis and treatment of influenza can occur. Efforts should be targeted to improve physician education and awareness of the illness. Interventions may be implemented to improve the prescribing of antiviral medications and potentially inappropriate prescribing.