Pandemic Threat Calls For Planning
April 20, 2006 Outlook & Review

As pandemic flu hits the news more often, people will be looking to school leaders for answers. They’ll want to know how you’ll handle an outbreak, should one occur. Our advice: Make a plan and ensure that parents, staff and your local media know that you have one and understand how it works.

Although it sounds frightening, a pandemic flu is simply the spread of a virus that is different enough from existing flu viruses that most humans have no resistance. The very young, the very old, and people with weak immune systems face the greatest threat.

Consider adapting your district’s communicable-disease plan to include a pandemic flu plan.

Additional Information

You can find information at:

• Oregon's Pandemic Influenza Planning Summit
• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Pandemic Flu Web site
  • School district pandemic influenza planning checklist
• National Implementation Plan (2.5mb ) - Released May 4, 2006, from the Homeland Security Office (234 pages). To learn how schools are addressed in this plan, do a PDF search for "school".