Infragard National Members Alliance Announces Efforts Focused on January and February as Pandemic Awareness Months.

WASHINGTON -- The InfraGard National Members Alliance (INMA) is pleased to announce January and February as Pandemic Awareness Months. Local InfraGard Members Alliances (IMAs) across the country have been helping to prepare security professionals and others in the health care industry for the possibility of a pandemic occurrence.

Efforts toward this preparation in local communities have already been undertaken by IMAs in Atlanta, Birmingham, New Haven, and Los Angeles. INMA President Robert Schmidt said, "Their hard work and dedication is contributing to the awareness and preparation in the event of a pandemic." The New York Metro IMA is planning a day-long Pandemic Preparedness Conference in New York at NYU Medical Centers on Wednesday, February 21. Pre-registration is required.

This is a multi-level opportunity to help local, state and federal agencies understand the threat, as well as economic, health and security repercussions of an illness, such as the avian flu, reaching pandemic proportions. "This will heighten the recognition of the need for local and national collaboration and preparedness," says Joseph Concannon, NY Metro IMA president. "It also will provide InfraGard with an invaluable opportunity to showcase our organization, positioning it and our 85 chapters and more than 18,000 members as leaders in our communities."

A pandemic is defined as a fast moving virus to which there is little immunity in the general population. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, who spoke at the 2006 InfraGard National Conference and is scheduled to open the New York Conference in February, warns that a pandemic could devastate the economic and social infrastructure of the United States and the world. It could be analogous to the impact of a Hurricane Katrina in every state, reoccurring in four to five waves during a 12-month period, killing millions of people, costing billions of dollars, and disrupting every aspect of our lives.

The 18,000-plus InfraGard membership consists of the Subject Matter Experts who are the owners and operators of our nation's critical infrastructures. Utilization of their expertise will help local communities prepare for a possible pandemic event to ensure minimal disruption and quick recovery. A multi-disciplinary approach which takes into consideration the effects on the health care industry and the hotel industry in particular when 2-5% of the workforce does not show up for work is a central focus of preparation.

For more information on InfraGard's efforts in this area or the Wednesday, February 21 Pandemic Preparedness Conference, contact Joe Concannon at [e-mail].

About InfraGard and the InfraGard National Members Alliance

The InfraGard Program began in 1996 as a collaborative effort between private sector cyber professionals and the FBI field office in Cleveland, Ohio. The FBI later expanded the program to every field office in the country. In 2003 the private sector members of InfraGard formed the "InfraGard National Members Alliance" (INMA). The INMA is a non-profit Delaware LLC with 501(c)3 status. The INMA LLC is comprised of 85 separate 501(c)3 InfraGard Members Alliances (IMAs) that represent over 18,000 FBI-vetted, InfraGard Subject Matter Experts. The INMA has a dual-focus value proposition. It provides its members with unmatched opportunities to promote the physical and cyber security of their organizations through access to a trusted, national network of Subject Matter Experts from the public and private sectors. And, it provides government stakeholders, across the local, state, and Federal levels, with unmatched access to the expertise and experience of critical infrastructure owners and operators. For more information about InfraGard, please visit www.infragardmembers.org.