In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education survey, college presidents listed rising tuition, increasing health-care costs, inadequate faculty salaries and student retention as their top concerns. Add bird flu to the list.
“The bird flu is on the minds of college presidents,” Sweet Briar President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld said.
Throughout 2006, local college administrators, including Sweet Briar staff, attended workshops, meetings and seminars to help their individual schools prepare for what experts says is an impending influenza pandemic.
“No one can make a prediction of when and if the next [pandemic] will occur, but the potential exists because the influenza A virus constantly changes, and sometimes these changes are big — resulting in a virus subtype that humans have never been exposed to,” Dr. Katherine V. Nichols, physician and director of the Central Virginia Health District, said.
There have been 10 pandemics recorded over the past 300 years, three in the last century, with the most recent in 1968. Pandemics — world-wide epidemics — have no predictable pattern. The time between events has ranged from 10 to 49 years. Based on these statistics many scientists say we are “due” for another.
Although the next pandemic could very well be caused by some other virus, experts around the world have been watching the H5N1 strain of the avian flu.
“We focus on the bird flu because that is the most recently identified novel influenza virus that could cause a pandemic — should it become easily spread from person to person,” Nichols said.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been a total of 261 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu infection since 2003 and 157 deaths. Most of the victims worked or lived directly with infected poultry.
According to Nichols, the H5N1 strain of the avian virus has not been reported in birds or humans anywhere in the United States, North America or the Western Hemisphere. And there have been few human cases reported in recent months in what have become the hot spots for the disease: Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
When asked how seriously we should take the threat of bird flu, Nichols wrote in an e-mail: “This is a very interesting question. We are not very good at taking the threats we face each day seriously — people continue to smoke, maintain unhealthy lifestyles, don’t wear seat belts, don’t get seasonal flu shots, PAP tests, mammograms, or immunize their children. The best we can all do is stay informed by reading and listening to reliable sources and do our best to stay otherwise healthy.”
The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, was more direct in his remarks at a pandemic planning conference held in Richmond last spring.
“Everything you say in advance of a pandemic seems alarmist,” Leavitt said. “Anything you’ve done after it starts is inadequate. So, all we can do is just talk about it openly and in a way that will inform people but not inflame.”
Linda Shank, executive assistant to Sweet Briar’s president and associate vice president for strategic initiatives, heads up Sweet Briar’s emergency preparedness planning. Shank has been working with various departments across campus since the summer to create a bird flu response plan.
She said all but a few departments have submitted plans and information. “We are going through the first draft of material now to make it stronger and to look for holes,” she said.
The plan is expected to be tested sometime this summer in a mock outbreak exercise. Shank also says she is looking into providing special information sessions on the bird flu to staff and faculty.
Before Thanksgiving, a letter from President Muhlenfeld was sent to parents and students alerting them to the planning that is under way and the potential need to close the College in the event of an outbreak in the United States.
Area colleges would likely shut down simultaneously and send students home to mitigate the spread of disease, Shank said.
In the letter, Muhlenfeld also urged families to prepare.
Nichols echoed this sentiment. “The greatest concern about an influenza [virus] that causes illness in a lot of people is the amount of social disruption that could occur due to a lot of absences in critical workplaces,” she said. “For this reason, the CDC and others have recommended that people make sure they have food, water and medicine available.”
Experts say local communities will be critical in mounting an effective response to a pandemic.
“Most public and private organizations [in our area] have developed flu preparedness plans and the general level of planning in the community is high,” Nichols said. “There are still questions to be resolved statewide, such as hospital readiness for a several-week surge in sick patients, and how to deal with the national shortage of nurses.”
There also is the issue of vaccines. According to the Virginia Department of Health Web site there likely won’t be any protection in the early stages of a pandemic because it can take several months to develop and distribute a new vaccine. Current flu vaccines will not protect against a new pandemic strain of flu virus.
There are, however, things you can do to protect yourself. “Do your best to stay healthy now,” Nichols said.
The VDH also recommends the following:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
- Wash hands thoroughly and often.
- Avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth.
- Stay home when you are sick.
For more information on pandemic influenza, visit the following Web sites:
The VDH has produced a 15-minute video about avian flu and the potential of a pandemic. The video is available at
http://www.vdh.state.va.us/PandemicFlu/PanFluDVD.asp.
Copies also are available in DVD and VHS formats.
– By
Michelle Lurch-Shaw,
SBC staff writer
