Swine Flu Advisory

World Health Organization Logo Image links to Web site

30 April 2009

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised its pandemic alert to level 5 on the basis of outbreak of the swine flu virus, which originated in Mexico and has subsequently spread to other countries.

For more information go to the WHO Web site.

As we advised in earlier updates, this is not a cause for alarm. We have no reports of any employees being infected with the virus and all our operations are running as normal.

Our health screening and business continuity plans are well advanced. At all our locations globally we regularly refresh and drill continuity programs for various forms of business risk. Our approach towards pandemic flu risk is based on a series of broad business continuity plans, which draw on our experiences with the avian flu and SARS issues. We have exhaustively tested and drilled these. Our key objectives are to protect the well being of our employees and to minimize any disruptions to our operations that could potentially impact customers’ businesses.

Current key actions include:

• The distribution of information about swine flu to all employees so that they can be aware of the nature of the virus and it symptoms in order to take appropriate precautions
• The provision of personal hygiene products such as hand wipes and personal thermometers
• Temperature screening at our office, warehouse and port facilities for all staff and guests in high risk areas
• Segregation of staff across multiple facilities in high risk areas
• The suspension of all non-essential travel to, from and within high-risk areas
• The increased utilization of communication methods such as phone and video conferencing as alternatives to face-to-face meetings.

We will continue to update you on any significant developments with regard to the swine flu. If you require further information in the meantime please contact your APL representative.