Blueprint for Pandemic Flu Preparedness Planning for Colleges and Universities

This document was developed as a tool for colleges and universities to use in pre-planning a response to a pandemic flu outbreak. According to the publication, institutions of higher education will likely be among the industries most severely impacted. This could include high levels of demand on student health services, relocation of students in residence halls, the establishment of quarantine sites, sickness among staff and faculty causing reductions in the work force, essential services hampered and perhaps unavailable, and significant loss of tuition revenues from closure of the institution, and non-returning students. The planning guide is the result of a two-day planning session that brought together experts on pandemic flu with representatives from various higher learning institutions.

The guide begins by outlining how a pandemic flu outbreak would progress, and what this means for colleges and universities. A series of checklists is provided that aim to serve as the basis for developing a blue print to identify areas needed for inclusion in a response plan. It discusses steps for preparing the plan including governance, risk assessment, communications and legal issues. It also discusses implementation and monitoring, as well as infection control and maintaining essential services. It explores considerations about campus operations, such as the student health centre, food services, academic services, counseling and security. The checklists are meant to be adapted as needed. Furthermore, the document suggests that all institutions of higher education review, update, and regularly test their emergency response and business continuity plans for, not only pandemic flu, but other potential emergencies.

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