E-Bulletin: Information about Swine Influenza
April 27, 2009 Dear ELS Counseling Partners, In light of the recent outbreak of the Human case of the Swine Influenza A (H1N1) in Mexico and some cases being confirmed in other countries, including the United States, we wish to share with you that ELS is proactively addressing this issue with our employees and students. As of this morning, in addition to Mexico and the US, cases of Swine Flu are being confirmed in Canada, Spain, France, UK, Israel, Brazil, New Zealand and other countries. The World Health Organization is monitoring the situation and issuing guidelines for prevention and containment. The U.S. Center for Disease Control has said that, thus far, compared to cases in Mexico, what we’re seeing in the US is mild disease, noting that the U.S. cases would not have been detected without increased surveillance. In the U.S., all the patients have recovered and only one patient was hospitalized. ELS believes that knowledge and full information is paramount to proper prevention, and we have issued to all ELS Language Centers the attached statement with full guidelines on how to best protect our students and our employees and are conducting information sessions in all ELS classes today. We are closely monitoring information and instructions provided by the WHO, as well as the U.S. Center for Disease Control and are quickly disseminating such information and instructions to all our centers. We wish to assure you that we know of no cases of the Swine Influenza on the premises of any ELS centers and that we are in close contact with our centers to ensure not only proper containment, but prevention. The health and well being of ELS students and ELS employees is our top priority. We will be in touch with you as any further information becomes available. Best regards, Vice President-US Operations & Business Affairs ELS Language Centers