Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan, hosts numerous international students and visiting scholars each academic year. International students from more than 130 countries compose approximately 10 percent of MSU's student population. More than 5,050 international students and scholars attended MSU in fall 2009, and more than 1,000 of them lived in on-campus residence halls and apartments. Emergency response and pandemic planning concerns on campus several years ago pushed MSU to prepare for a potential need to close residence halls.
Residence Halls
During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, the University of Iowa (UI) University Housing developed a program to provide students with nutritious food if they were too ill to leave their on-campus rooms. Ill students could fill out an online "Isolation Meal Pack Request" package containing three meals. Meals could be delivered or picked up by a friend, and meal plans were charged for two meals if the package of food was delivered and charged for one meal if the package was picked up at one of the UI Marketplaces. The meal pack contained enough food for lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day.
Although the University of Illinois was able to send many H1N1-infected students home to recover with their parents, an on-campus option was needed. Illinois has among the most international students of any college campus in the United States, said Jim Rooney, EDD, Associate Director of Housing. More than 2,700 of those students are undergraduates, who tend to live on campus.
The 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu outbreak forced the University of Chicago to make immediate housing plans after the flu virus was first identified in California and Mexico. So, when H1N1 hit in 2009, two things happened that influenced their response strategy immediately, said Dr. Kristine Bordenave, director of the Student Care Center (SCC): One, the university had one of the first H1N1 infections in the nation, a hospital staff member; and two, the timing of the academic year.
During the H1N1 pandemic, the University of Michigan developed policies and practices around provision of alcohol-free hand sanitizer. In April 2009, the University of Michigan was planning for its spring graduation ceremonies. Planners realized that students' families from all over the nation and world would be visiting during graduation. The celebration provided an opportunity for extensive flu transmission on campus, said Robert Winfield, MD, Director of the University Health Service and Chief Health Officer at the University of Michigan.
A Health Advocate is a student appointed as a health resource in his or her residence hall or apartment community, fraternity, or sorority. Health Advocates attend weekly classes at the student health service, where they are specially trained to respond to common health-related issues. They share information and prevention strategies with other students in their hall or house and also refer students to other health resources on campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), with more than 42,000 students, experienced a surge of H1N1 cases in fall 2009. The University Health Services (UHS) clinic is normally staffed by an on-call clinician on Labor Day, yet the flood of phone calls from sick and worried students overwhelmed the one staff member. Due to the rush of calls, the clinic was compelled to open with the assistance of physicians who volunteered to begin screening and treating students before the semester began.
During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, ill students living in on-campus housing posed a special concern for the University of Iowa (UI). The Office of Residence Life focused many of their efforts on training Resident Assistants (RAs) to respond appropriately to ill students living in their halls.
This recommendations document was developed to provide education and guidance on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for H1N1 pandemic influenza in the face of confusing, and sometimes conflicting, guidance from federal agencies. Although questions about use of PPE surfaced early among some of our colleagues, the need to have clear and specific guidelines became evident as University of Minnesota (U of M) planners reviewed the quantities of stockpiled equipment they had available, as well as limited resources related to appropriate individual fit-testing for respirators.
