Plans are to make the multimedia program available to the public.
While there may not be a reason to panic about a possible outbreak of flu in Columbia, school administrators have already started preparing for the worst.
The Missouri School Boards’ Association hosted a two-part series of Internet television programs dealing with flu pandemic at the association’s headquarters in Columbia on Wednesday. Broadcast to school board members and administration officials nationwide, the program presented advice to schools in case of a flu pandemic. The program was produced by the Education Solutions Global Network, the association’s Internet television network.
The presenters included Eddie R. Hedrick, the emerging infections coordinator with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services; Anne Bryant, the executive director of the National School Boards Association; and Carter Ward, the executive director of the Missouri School Boards’ Association.
The program was broadcast on www.esgn.tv to viewers and school leaders across the country. A multimedia record of the program is expected to be available to the public on the Web site beginning today.
The program focused first on providing background and history on flu epidemics and pandemics and then shifted to providing information on the different types of flu. The focus then turned to providing opportunities for viewers to send in questions for the presenters to provide feedback.
This is the first time the Missouri School Board’s Association has hosted this type of program on flu pandemia. Ward said the group is “trying to get a window, where people start planning and are aware and trying to become prepared.”
With the global risk of Avian flu and issues regarding flu vaccine shortages, the issue is gradually becoming a concern for public institutions such as schools and businesses on a national level as they seek to find reasonable measures to combat the problem.
Every year in the United States, an average of 5 percent to 20 percent of the population is affected by the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According the U.S. Department of Education, one-fifth of the U.S. population attends or works in schools.
It is estimated that a flu pandemic could cause as much as 10 percent of students and staff to miss school on any given day, according to the center.
“It’s certainly a national and international issue,” Ward said.
Carter said that these type of programs are targeted for a “community of school people who are trying to learn from each other ... and keep their schools safe.”
While Columbia schools and authorities don’t have contingency plans finalized for a flu pandemic situation, Hedrick and Bryant urged viewers to work together with health agencies to prepare themselves.
“Be pro-active, build on your own school’s emergency plan,” Bryant said.
For parents, Hedrick emphasized that keeping children out of school is not always the best option.
“Keeping a child at home will not guarantee the fact that (their child) might not get the disease,” Hedrick said. “At some point they are going to be exposed.”
Along the same lines, Hedrick added that “closing schools may not always be the right option, because of the prolonged duration of the flu pandemic lasting as long as 18 months.”
Hedrick emphasized the need for reasonable measures to be taken to ensure that schools and businesses stay open.
The presenters stressed that dealing with emergency situations such as pandemics was primarily a task to be done on a local level.
“In reality, a pandemic is a local crisis worldwide,” Bryant said, quoting U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt.
While there isn’t a current epidemic or pandemic of influenza in humans, flu ranks as one of the top leading causes of death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu and pneumonia accounted for 65,681 deaths in 2002, or 2.7 percent of deaths. There have been three major flu pandemics in 1918, 1957 and 1968.
The worst documented case, the influenza pandemic of 1918, caused an estimated 500,000 U.S. deaths and resulted in up to 40 million deaths worldwide.