College drafting plan for possible pandemic

Sarah Siegel Guest Writer

When Betsy Wieand ’08, along with her fellow health interns, along with campus Emergency Medical Technicians were presented with the College’s plans for a possible flu pandemic, their party favor was neither the ubiquitous free pizza nor Nilda’s baked goods: it was hand sanitizer.

On Feb. 2, the Center for Disease Control in Washington, D.C. released new guidelines for public and private organizations in case of a flu pandemic. In worst-case scenarios the guidelines include closing schools and businesses for up to three months, as well as staggering public transportation schedules to reduce the risk of infection. The government’s guidelines arrived almost a full year into Vassar’s preparation for a possible outbreak. According to Dean of the College Judy Jackson, the College started mobilizing to confront a pandemic last spring.

Different strains of flu virus kill 38,000 Americans annually. But the specter of avian flu, or “bird flu,” has recently become a central concern of public health organizations and has aroused fears of a worldwide flu pandemic. Avian flu is a strain of influenza deadly to poultry that has forced several countries in southeast Asia to kill hundreds of thousands of birds. It has recently been found in England on the largest turkey farm in Europe.

It is rare for humans to contract the disease; to do so, a person must come into close contact with infected birds. But while the existing virus is not easily transferred to humans, the great fear of public health officials is that a person with human flu will contract avian flu, allowing the two genomes to combine and form a viral strain both highly lethal to humans and easily transmittable.

The Vassar effort to construct a pandemic plan began within the Emergency Response Group, chaired by Jackson and comprised of around 30 administrators broadly representing campus life. It analyzes Vassar’s readiness to handle emergencies that could cause disruptions to classes and/or College business. It soon became clear that pandemic planning warranted its own subgroup. Within this subgroup, Jackson is still ultimately responsible for the planning, but she said that she is guided by the expert advice of two campus administrators: Director of Environmental Health and Safety James Kelly and Director of Health Services Dr. Irena Balawajder.

Planning intensified over the summer when the Vassar group invited local agencies to start a dialogue about how to deal with the disease if it hits the Hudson Valley. “Our first task is to be informed,” said Jackson, and the meeting created a space for “shared information and shared assistance.”

Jackson said that the group met with the American Red Cross, area hospitals, fire departments, state and local police, other colleges in the area, the Marist University and Dutchess County Departments of Health, and Michael Caldwell, the Commissioner of Health for Dutchess County.

Awareness and education have been the group’s primary goals. Using information gathered over the spring and summer (as well as Kelly and Balawajder’s constant guidance), the group began talking to various departments on campus during the fall.

Grouping different divisions by function (so that, for example, Academics is in a group with Computer Information Systems (CIS) and the Dean of Studies Office), the pandemic planning committee asked each of these groups to tell them what that group would be able to do and what materials it would need to accomplish its task at different levels of pandemic severity. Academics, the Dean of Studies and CIS, for example, are jointly looking into whether the College would be able to conduct classes online. The effort stresses strengthening inter-departmental communication.

Jackson, Kelly and Balawajder are currently organizing the different group’s needs and possible responses into a College-wide planning matrix that will show how the College as a whole would respond to different outbreak-severity levels.

In the meantime, Balawajder and Kelly have been working on a presentation for students detailing risks and possible responses, and showing what students can do to help prevent the spread of infection. The first draft of this presentation was recently attended by Wieand and other health interns. Currently at approximately 75 minutes, administrators want to whittle the demonstration down to a 15-20-minute presentation given to all students dorm by dorm, with a special presentation for those living in senior housing. The presentation will focus on both flu awareness and practical information such as hand-washing techniques (do it often and with hot water and soap) and proper sneezing etiquette (into your sleeve, not your hand), and will make sources of more detailed information available to all.

In the midst of this planning, Jackson stresses that the College may never need to enact anything beyond the education stage. The pandemic might not materialize, it might not hit our area, or it might hit while school is out. She asks students to approach the issue earnestly, but calmly.

“We have the right plans and the right players,” said Kelly. “We hope to assuage people’s fears—knowledge is power.”

For more information about avian flu and national pandemic preparation visit fluwiki.com, pandemicflu.gov, and the site of the American College Health Association: www.acha.org.