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The NDSU Crisis Management Response Team and the Ready Campus Initiative organizers held a town hall meeting on Sept. 28 to share information with the NDSU community about the plans that address H1N1 prevention efforts, care and treatment of students and potential academic and operational disruptions related to the virus.

Michael Harwood, assistant dean of student life and chair of the crisis response team, led the meeting, while five panel members discussed student health services, academic concerns, information technology options for alternative course delivery, human resources issues for staff and faculty, student life issues and concerns surrounding research. The panel included Steven Glunberg, medical director of Student Health Service; Jeff Gerst, associate vice president of information technology and chief information officer; Broc Lietz, associate vice president for finance and administration; Charles Peterson, dean of pharmacy, nursing, and allied sciences; and Scott Walden, director of animal resources.

Glunberg said that because H1N1 is a new strain of influenza and no one has any immunity to it, the illness is spreading quickly. "It was first recognized in Mexico in March. The second case was in the U.S. a month later," he said. "Two months after that it was in all 50 states and several countries. At that point, the World Health Organization proclaimed it a pandemic in June."

The symptoms of the H1N1 are similar to the seasonal flu, but one thing that differs is intestinal symptoms. Glunberg says nausea, vomiting and diarrhea are not typically seen in seasonal influenza.

The virus spreads through person-to-person contact via coughing, sneezing or touching contaminated surfaces. "It is spread by droplets that travel three or four feet," Glunberg says. "If you distance yourself six feet away from someone who is ill, that greatly reduces your risk of getting sick."

Prevention is the greatest defense of against the H1N1 virus. Glunberg says the most important thing is to get vaccinated once the vaccine is available. A tentative vaccination clinic has been planned for early November for people from the NDSU community who are most at-risk for getting H1N1. People aged six months to 24 years fall within the high priority group. Approximately 12,000 doses of the vaccination have been reserved. The Crisis Management Response team will send out more information once it is available.

In the event that an outbreak of H1N1 should occur at NDSU, panel members said they will look at a number of factors before making decisions about day-to-day operations. "It's one thing if you get five, 10 even 15 cases (of H1N1), but if you think of our 14,000 students and our 3,500 employees and numbers get into the hundreds or maybe even thousands, then we are going to start thinking differently about how the illness is spreading and if we are better off not having people here," Lietz said. "We will deal with this, from an operational standpoint, on a case-by-case basis when we see how severe the situation is – how fast it is spreading, how many people are getting sick on a daily or weekly basis."

From an academic standpoint, Peterson said the community must remain vigilant. As a way to keep track of H1N1 cases, a form has been created for faculty to report drops in class attendance. "If a class all of a sudden has 50 percent of students missing, that is a significant finding," he said. "Theoretically, you could have selective outbreaks where specific classes need to be cancelled, but not the rest of the university."

Peterson says people need to be aware of their symptoms. "If someone is ill and is febrile or has a fever, I do not think that individual should be here," he said. "That is a sign that the individual is infectious and should go home."

Gerst said that Information Technology Services is prepared to take classes online. Staff members from Creative Instructional Services are creating "H1N1 bytes," which are tools that will help instructors create audio visual tools that will help in placing their classes online. Gerst encouraged faculty to make sure their home computers are working properly, have good Internet connectivity and that they have updated their operating systems and antivirus software.

Regarding research, Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer, said that it is very important for the senior members of every research group that has federal and private funds to have a strong connection with their program officers or private sector liaison. He said that federal agencies are unsympathetic if a deadline is not met and that the principal investigator is in charge of creating a plan for lab operations if there are unexpected key absences.

For more information about NDSU's efforts to manage the H1N1 virus, go to www.ndsu.edu/vpur/H1N1 and watch for e-mails from NDSU.CMRT@ndsu.edu.