University Times

A Pitt pandemic preparedness plan released this week can be applied to any widespread communicable disease outbreak that impacts the University community, officials say. A summary of the plan has been posted online.

International public health officials say that pandemics, or worldwide epidemics, occur about every 30-50 years. Recent concerns about an avian influenza virus that has killed some 200 people in several countries have led public health authorities to urge institutions, including universities, to develop pandemic response plans.

A group of some 60 Pitt multidisciplinary pandemic planners, convened by Executive Vice Chancellor Jerome Cochran, who also is Pitt’s emergency executive, and headed by Jay Frerotte, director of Environmental Health and Safety, developed the plan.

The group examined student preparedness; research continuity; academic considerations, and administrative operations and functions.

Given the unpredictability of any future pandemic’s characteristics, including its symptoms, how it will spread, its incubation period and the rate of its spread among humans, a pandemic preparedness plan must be broad and consider a wide range of outcomes, according to the 12-page summary.

The plan outlines five phases of institutional response, each triggered by an evolving pandemic’s threat levels, ranging from first confirmation of human infection anywhere in the world to when a disease appears on a Pitt campus.

The five response levels are: 1) the planning phase, of which the pandemic response plan is a part; 2) enhanced communication due to reports of effective human-to-human disease transmission elsewhere in the world; 3) “social distancing” of students to reduce illness and disease transmission on campus; 4) suspension of normal University operations due to pandemic conditions, and 5) plans for responding to ill individuals on campus.

The plan calls for communications tailored to the University community via email, phone, text messages and Pitt web site postings, all disseminated by the Office of Public Affairs. The document also outlines procedures for faculty, staff, administrators and students throughout the five phases.

For example, phase 3 (social distancing required to control contagion) is triggered when confirmed reports reveal a human-to-human transmission of an emerging or re-emerging pathogen in the vicinity (within a typical commuting distance) of a Pitt campus; when there are confirmed deaths in North America; when there is a heightened fear among the regional population, and when the University is receiving numerous inquiries about the status of its operations.

Under that scenario, Pitt would try to minimize the demand for on-campus medical care and for housing and support services. Thus, phase 3 would trigger a temporary suspension of all in-classroom activities (although instruction is expected to continue via distance education when possible); an advisory notice for residence hall students to return home, and a framework for maintaining services for the estimated 5 percent of on-campus students who, due to travel restrictions or financial reasons, would be unable to return home. (Students living off campus would be expected to follow any directives issued by the Allegheny County Health Department.)

Although, under these conditions, faculty and staff are assumed to be available for work if they or their family members show no signs of contagion, the pandemic response plan anticipates an absentee rate of 10-25 percent.

Some details still need to be ironed out, the plan acknowledges. “A failure to report to duty based on fear or the perceived need to protect one’s family, future or livelihood is being evaluated by Human Resources with respect to current employee policies [on] sick time, leave of absence, the Family Medical Leave Act and paid time off,” the plan states.

Individual academic support staff deemed essential to the continuation of programs of instruction and research will be notified of their designation and responsibilities, and certain personnel actions, including leaves of absence for essential personnel, may be suspended during the period of the disruption, according to the plan.

The 12-page summary of the plan is online at www.pitt.edu/avianflu/plan.html. The full plan now is appended to Pitt’s emergency response guidelines, which are disseminated to deans, directors and department chairs.

Pitt’s avian flu web site, with links to national and international avian flu news, is online at www.pitt.edu/avianflu/index.html.

—Peter Hart