Pandemic Influenza Response: General Planning Principles

by NAFSA's Pandemic Flu Task Force

Principles

• Remember that you are not alone, even in a one-person office.
• There are good resources already available, many on this Web site, such as the World Health Organization Global Influenza Preparedness Plan. You do not need to recreate them.
• Stick to what is predictable, with an emphasis on what you can do. Remember that you cannot prepare for every eventuality.
• Simple works best.
• Focus on planning for the entire campus community, not just for students who may have been (or currently are) outside the country.
• Remember to include planning for your own office. For instance, can you set up to work from home for a time if necessary?

Actions

• Identify your campus Crisis Management Team.
• Design a crisis management plan that fits into the larger campus plan and that coordinates with the larger community plan.
• Refer to your local, state, regional, and national response plans.
• Prepare communications policies and gather contact information both on campus and abroad.
• Consult partners abroad concerning their own preparedness plans. Many of these are already available on the Web.
• Work with your Crisis Management Team to define “triggers” for action. For example:
  • Level one – animal to human contagion
    
  • Level two – human to human contagion reported
  • Level three – human to human contagion confirmed
    

• For each level define:
  • Appropriate communication
  • Resources needed
  • Appropriate action
    

• Prepare and test an “action” plan in coordination with partners on and off campus.
• Share information and experience with the international education community.
  

July 2006