AIR Worldwide Releases Global Pandemic Flu Model

[Excerpt - editing is mine]
For Immediate Release:

AIR Worldwide Releases Global Pandemic Flu Model

BOSTON, June 27, 2013 - Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) announced today that it has released its Pandemic Flu Model. AIR developed its Pandemic Flu Model to capture the excess morbidity, mortality, and insurance losses caused by pandemic influenza. AIR is a member of the Verisk Insurance Solutions group at Verisk Analytics (Nasdaq:VRSK).

The model includes more than 18,000 simulated events, ranging in severity from mild to severe, that can start and spread anywhere in the world and last from months to years. This new model builds upon AIR's existing mortality modeling capabilities that enable clients to enter injury or life exposures in its natural catastrophe models to obtain estimates of loss.

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"The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was one of the largest public health catastrophes of the past century, causing life insurance losses of nearly $100 million, which is comparable to nearly $20 billion today," continued Madhav. "Insurers striving to manage pandemic risk need to know that a modern-day pandemic on par with the Spanish flu of 1918 could occur. Of course, post-1918 medical advancements and the graying of the global population would affect the severity of a pandemic today. Probabilistic modeling accounts for medical advancements and other societal changes and enables a more complete understanding and management of pandemic risk than relying on the historical record alone."

The AIR Pandemic Flu Model is currently available in Version 15.0 of the CATRADER® catastrophe risk management system.

Complete article:  http://online.wsj.com/article/HUG1712527.djm.html?mod=googlenews_wsj