University officials finalized a report this week outlining how the university would respond to a large-scale emergency should avian flu strike the campus.
The report offers a doomsday-like scenario that includes closing campus offices and dorms, evacuating the campus and canceling the semester if the situation were severe enough.
Though avian flu has only spread among animals, the university created a task force last fall to draw up a plan that would protect the campus if the virus began transmitting among humans in a flu pandemic that “could potentially result in hundreds of thousands of deaths,” according to a report released yesterday. The report covers events ranging from animals contracting the disease to the grim possibility of “millions of hospitalizations, and hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs.”
Avian flu, which has only occurred in humans who consumed poultry infected with the virus, has sparked worldwide concern that the virus could mutate to infect humans and set off a global catastrophe.
While officials concede that of the more extreme conditions detailed in the report are unlikely to occur, the plan still assumes that in the event of an outbreak its “impact will likely be felt on the University of Maryland campus, as well as across the nation.”
“I don’t know how likely it is to happen, but I’m glad that we’re prepared for it,” said Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Osteen, who oversaw the task force. “The decision was that we needed to be prepared for the worst.”
The report was made public this week and students were encouraged to familiarize themselves with the plan in a campus-wide e-mail yesterday.
The plan details four levels of response for officials to choose from; they will base their decision on the severity of the outbreak. Should a flu case be affirmed in North America, it recommends students to stay in their dorms and take special precautions around food, as they prepare for the third and fourth levels.
The third and fourth levels of the report call for measures as severe as closing down university housing, administrative offices and canceling classes.
“The goal is get people off campus and into the safety of their own homes,” Osteen said. “A family unit is a much better place to be unexposed.”
On the fourth level, in the event of a national pandemic, the campus would be completely evacuated, and the semester would either be postponed or canceled. If the bird flu were to spread across the country, the university is also being considered as a place where vaccines would be distributed if one becomes available, Osteen said.
The report also outlines plans for a student locator service that would provide a way for parents to contact students if phone or Internet access becomes bogged down, as well as a mechanism that will allow stranded residents to post messages online that can be viewed by the public, even if the Internet becomes too busy for immediate access, Osteen said.
Officials hope students and faculty will read over the report this week, and deans were additionally instructed to ask all professors to discuss the possibility of an avian influenza outbreak for 10 minutes in their classes, as well as include a paragraph on a bird flu evacuation plan in their future syllabi.
“We’re hoping that this communication that goes out will help [students] be as prepared as possible,” Osteen said. “I would hope that some students have given a good bit of thought to this, I would think most of them have not.”
Regardless of the university’s attempts to warn students of the bird flu’s potential consequences, some students remain unconcerned.
“I started to laugh,” freshman letters and sciences major Steph Solof said. “I guess it’s feasible that the avian flu could come to Maryland, but if [it’s] going to come, there’s nothing this e-mail is going to be able to do about it.”
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
