PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 17, March 16, 2006

Campus prepares for possible avian flu outbreak

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Flu fighter Kip Mecum, director of emergency planning in the Division of Public Safety, leads the Infectious Disease Work Group, which is preparing action plans for the campus in the event that the avian influenza virus becomes transmissible between people. Federal, state and local officials, as well as peer universities, are developing similar plans to monitor and control a possible outbreak of the disease among humans.

Campus officials hope the next flu season flies by as relatively uneventfully as this winter’s flu season has done. However, amid growing concern about the potential spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus among bird populations worldwide, communities throughout the U.S., including the UI’s Urbana campus, are preparing comprehensive action plans to mitigate the effects of a potential outbreak of the disease among humans.

A naturally occurring virus among birds, the H5N1 virus usually does not infect humans. Although the virus has not been detected among birds in the U.S. yet and is not expected to migrate to North America until fall or later, it is endemic among flocks in Africa, Europe, the Near East and Southeast Asia.

Following a directive from the U.S. federal government, state and local officials, health-care facilities and emergency services agencies are preparing pandemic response plans in the event the H5N1 virus mutates to a form capable of sustained human-to-human transmission and becomes a global public health concern. Peer universities such as Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University and the University of Minnesota have developed or are developing response plans for their campuses.

At the UI’s Urbana campus, the Infectious Disease Work Group is updating the Infectious Disease Response/Incident Action Plan, a comprehensive program of monitoring, communication and containment protocols that UI officials would deploy in accordance with directives from state officials, including the Illinois Department of Public Health, emergency services agencies and Carle Foundation Hospital, the hospital designated by IDPH to coordinate responses to medical crises in Region 6 of Illinois.

The current draft UI plan outlines protocols that would be undertaken in three phases: if a confirmed case of human-to-human transmission of avian flu were to occur anywhere, if a suspected or confirmed case appeared in the contiguous United States or in the Midwest, and if a case were confirmed on campus and had the potential to disrupt normal university operations, such as classes, administrative functions and events.

Kip Mecum, chair of the work group and director of emergency planning in the Division of Public Safety, said that nearly two dozen campus units have responsibilities under the plan, such as conducting educational programs about symptoms and self-protection; dispensing immunizations or antiviral medications; addressing research and university operating concerns; training and equipping essential personnel with proper safety equipment; and limiting exposure to contagion through modified work schedules, travel restrictions, sanitation programs or quarantines.

If the avian flu were to infect large numbers of people in the area, current plans include the use of UI facilities such as Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall as a “surge” hospital facility and a mass inoculation center, respectively. A surge hospital could accommodate large numbers of patients, such as would occur during a pandemic, once the capacity of local hospitals has been exceeded. A mass inoculation center would distribute supplies of a vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile, a reserve of large quantities of medicines and medical supplies that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributes in cooperation with federal, state and local agencies to people in areas affected by public health emergencies, such as flu epidemics, terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Dr. Robert Palinkas, the director of McKinley Health Center, said that events such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a viral disease that first emerged in Southern China during 2002, have underscored the necessity of emergency response planning.

“The plans have gotten more robust; there’s much more flesh on them than there was before,” Palinkas said. “With SARS, we were sort of planning as the cases were emerging. The university has a lot of brainpower and a lot of capacity to address such issues, has a done a lot of networking and planning, and has established a process where it would respond as fast if not faster than the rest of the community. The university is not likely to be caught unawares, and its response would be integrated with the greater community. It’s very possible that all our planning might never come in to play, and we’re hoping that’s the case.”

Representatives from the Office of Student Affairs, Environmental Health and Safety Division, the Institute for Genomic Biology, McKinley Health Center, University Housing Division and other campus units are refining the plan with input from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and the Champaign County Emergency Management Agency. Mecum said the work group expects to have a final draft by May 1, when the plan will be sent to unit leaders and experts on campus for comments and review.

According to the World Health Organization, since the H5N1 avian flu virus surfaced in 2003, 175 people have contracted it through direct contact with infected birds, and 95 people have died. Experts report that the risk of people contracting the virus is very low, even in countries that have large populations of infected birds, but people are being cautioned to avoid direct contact with dead or sick birds, their feathers and their feces.

A commercial vaccine to protect people against avian flu is not available currently because a pandemic form of the virus must emerge and be identified before a vaccine can be developed.

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