Posts tagged with preparedness.

H1N1 long on the radar for schools

Joey Coleman, October 19, 2009 at 4:37 PM

 

There is a lot of attention focused on the H1N1 virus right now. Not a day goes by without a media outlet reporting on the latest study causing debate among researchers, doctors, and government officials. There are a lot of unknowns at the present time and plenty of concern about what will occur this winter as the virus spreads. A lot of this concern is focused on the education sector at all levels.

 

I'm often asked if I believe universities and colleges will be able to handle a major outbreak of H1N1, and if they are doing enough to be prepared for a pandemic. To answer both questions, we have to look past at what our post secondary institutions were doing prior to the discovery of the current H1N1 strain of influenza A.

 

I've been covering post-secondary education professionally for three years now and pandemic preparation has been at the top of the post-secondary emergency planning agenda the entire time. While the public and the media were still fixated on gun violence as a major safety concern and a potential pandemic wasn't even on the radar, Canadian colleges and universities were finalizing pandemic plans.

 

A great deal of this planning was the result of foresight within the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO).  I attended a major conference they organized on emergency preparedness in the summer of 2008. I went to write a story about campus shootings and how Canadian universities were preparing for the possibility of a shooting on campus, especially following the tragic shootings at Dawson College in Montreal .

 

I was surprised to discover a large portion of the conference devoted to pandemic planning. Some institutions already had extensive pandemic plans, others were in the later stages of creating their plans, many were in the middle of creating plans, and a few were lagging behind. There was a great deal of co-operation and sharing of resources between institutions as every school was working on improving or creating a plan.

 

When H1N1 arrived in spring, Canadian institutions were prepared. This stood in stark contrast to many American institutions which blundered their initial responses to swine flu and reacted more out of fear (fed in part by the panicked tone of the American 24/7 news channels) than reasonable precaution.  With minimal or no planning for a pandemic, some American universities overreacted by closing their campuses after small outbreaks. Western Oregon University was closed (http://www.wou.edu/health_closure.php) four days at the beginning of May due to a single case of H1N1.

 

Most Canadian universities have special pages devoted to H1N1 information for students, staff, and faculty. Many universities have sent special messages to students. Last week, Concordia University posted a message on their website (http://news.concordia.ca/notices/015432.shtml) that summarizes the key points well.

 

The question is if students will actually do our part and stay home if we're displaying flu-like symptoms.

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