| |  Emerging Infectious Diseases/Pandemic Flu - Summary and Background Information
It has become increasingly apparent that schools must be prepared to deal with a variety of threatening situations. One of the most challenging of these is the threat of disease epidemics/pandemics. As your school initiates the development of its Crisis Response Plan, action plans must be designed to respond to an incident of infectious disease.
General Response Guidelines
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emphasizes the importance of developing screening processes and providing public health education; cutting down access to students, staff and teachers possibly infected with the virus; and developing policies and procedures for closing down schools in the case of a pandemic, especially before vaccines are available or when they are in short supply. These preparation, prevention, response, and containment procedures are detailed in the following pages.
Pandemics
A pandemic is an epidemic over a wide geographic area affecting a large percentage of the population, such as pandemic influenza. Pandemics occur naturally in the human population; scientists do not argue whether there will be pandemics, only when, what kind, and their severity. In the 20th century, the emergence of several new influenza A virus subtypes caused three pandemics, all of which spread around the world within a year of being detected (The "Spanish Flu" of 1918-19, the "Asian Flu" of 1957-58, and the "Hong Kong" flu of 1968-69). It is the school's responsibility to prepare for such eventualities.
Avian Flu
The Avian Flu is caused by an infectious virus which has spread through bird populations in Asia and is now spreading in Europe. A certain strain of this Flu, H5N1, has also infected humans: as of February 6, 2006, the World Health Organization has recorded 165 cases, 88 of which resulted in death, primarily in Asia. Almost all the deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads between humans, setting off a pandemic. Many public health officials and researchers are worried about the H5N1 strain because it mutates (changes) quickly by "borrowing" genes from other viruses, and because it closely resembles the virulent "Spanish Flu" of 1918-19. Rapid mutation makes it hard for health officials to contain the virus or make a vaccine that protects against it.
Although stories in the press relate the horrors of past pandemics, no one knows what to expect due to the mutations that occur in nature. The next pandemic could be relatively mild, or it could be very severe. Even in a worst-case scenario, a school is not helpless; there are steps that will minimize the impact, prepare the school community, and possibly allow the school to continue to operate, either on campus, or in a "virtual school" setting.
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