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Infectious Disease / Pandemic Flu Prevention

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Is to provide concise, relevant, and current information to help those in our campus community navigate the vast amount of information about pandemic flu planning.  Help us keep our campus community safe and healthy - students and employees are important since they represent our individual and collective future.

Contact Us for Additional Information

If you would like additional information about avian flu contact:

Stephanie Hanenberg,
Director, Student Health Center
www.uccs.edu/healthcenter/ hlthcntr@uccs.edu
719-255-4444

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
719-255-3838

Infectious Disease/ Pandemic Flu
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The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) has been collaborating with numerous other agencies to prepare for a pandemic flu.

Most infectious disease surveillance has been looking for instances of H5N1 "bird flu" in or approaching the United States.  At this time there is no H5N1 "bird flu" in the United States. Currently, those most at risk for exposure to H5N1 "bird flu" are individuals who travel outside the country.

Recent (April 2009) activity of H1N1 "swine flu" has been noted in California and the Mexico City area.  There is some speculation that a limited number of these cases may involve human-to-human transmission, which is an early indicator of a new strain of flu which humans may be susceptible to.  UCCS Emergency Preparedness and the Student Health Center are continuing to monitor this activity through CDC and open-source reports.

Experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last pandemic occurred. WHO uses a series of six alert phases to inform the world of the seriousness of the threat. We are currently at alert phase three: a new influenza virus (avian flu) is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading rapidly among humans.

No one can predict when a pandemic might occur. However experts are watching the avian flu very closely and are preparing for the possibility that the virus may begin to spread swiftly and easily among humans.

UCCS convened an Infectious Disease Committee to study the possibility of a pandemic flu outbreak, should one occur. Members of the committee continue to work closely with local, city, county, state, federal, and private organizations to ensure our campus community is prepared for a pandemic flu. Additionally, the UCCS Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee and administrators are actively involved in reviewing policy and providing direction for pandemic planning.

The Infectious Disease Committee created a three-step strategy:

  1. Develop a pandemic flu plan
  2. Provide information for campus awareness
  3. Train the campus community - PowerPoint seminar - it's only 15 slides