Infectious Disease
Preparedness
The Office of Campus Emergency Planning has been working with
campus administrators, scientists, and professionals to develop
an incident action plan for use in the event that an infectious
disease outbreak would potentially disrupt campus operations.
While the initial purpose was to address the numerous concerns
about Avian Flu, the campus plan is applicable in all cases of a
potential infectious disease outbreak. To view a draft of the
University's incident action plan and initial recommendations
for a pandemic flu response the following document is available,
Infectious Disease Response – Incident Action Plan
.
Comments or suggestions on this plan are welcome and
can be emailed to
emergencyplanning@illinois.edu.
The infectious disease
incident action plan is directed at any potential infectious
disease outbreak although our current concern relates to
pandemic flu. In the past, the campus has been challenged with
other possible outbreaks resulting from Menengitis, Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) or West Nile virus (WNV). Campus units
may find it useful to create their own incident action plan
(similar to the campus plan) with respect to responding to
and continuing operations during a pandemic flu or
infectious disease outbreak. Any infectious disease outbreak has the potential to disrupt unit operations either
directly or indirectly by contributing to high employee
absenteeism, loss of outside services, procurement ability,
information services, loss of research, class time etc.
A template for creating 2 or 3
level incident action plans is available on the
Templates page of this website.
These templates can also be used to create specific emergency
response annexes to existing emergency operation plans.
Information from the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
concerning Avian Influenza (strain H5N1) can also be found on
the CDC web site at
Avian Influenza (Bird Flu).
Persons wanting additional information about
Avian Flu can also
go to the McKinley Health Center webpage to see the information
they provide, this information is available on their web page
Avian Flu.
For
additional information please refer to the
FAQ page.
Avian
Flu and You - Recommendations for staying healthy and
protecting yourself during the coming flu season.
Avian
Flu PowerPoint Presentation - Use this
presentation for sharing information on the Influenza Virus
including information on the Avian Flu.
Good
personal hygiene habits can make a significant difference in
reducing the possibility of contracting a cold or the flu. As
the flu season approaches, please visit the following links for
information on proper hand washing techniques. Encourage your
family and friends to adopt these habits as well to help insure
an enjoyable and healthy winter and holiday season.
www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/faq/hand.htm
www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/cruiselines/hand_hygiene_general.htm
Proper
“cough etiquette” helps to reduce the likelihood that, in the
event you do catch a cold or flu, you will spread the illness to
others. Dr. Ben Lounsbury, has created a humorous video with
respect to “cough etiquette”. His video provides excellent
information on how the spread of disease can be controlled
simply by following common sense personal health techniques
related to cough control.
The video can be viewed at
www.coughsafe.com.
Reasonable
restrictions on activities and the implementation of common
sense personal hygiene habits have the potential to make a
significant difference if implemented prior to the start of the
flu season.
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