On Thursday, nearly 50 state and University health officials met on the Tempe campus to discuss the effects of H1N1 and how college campuses can be better prepared for a future event of widespread disease.
This month marks one year since the H1N1 pandemic, often called swine flu, that infected an estimated 60 million people, hospitalized 270,000 in the U.S. and resulted in the death of 12,270, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The conference was hosted by ASU Pandemic Planning Committee, a group of 31 health experts and administrators in charge of the University’s response and procedures in the event of health-related emergencies.
The anniversary also brought in health experts from around the state, including Will Humble, director of Arizona Department of Health Services, along with top officials from the Maricopa, Pinal and Coconino counties.
Representatives from NAU and UA gave presentations on how the pandemic affected their campuses.
Humble said that unlike the seasonal flu, which has some symptoms that mirror H1N1, last year’s pandemic affected youth more than any other group.
That is helping drive the decision-making from the state’s perspective on how to handle future outbreaks, he said.
Dr. Allan Markus, director of ASU Campus Health Services, said the common theme to emerge during the meeting was the importance of planning.
“As far as ASU, the fact that we started [planning] in 2006 was key,” Markus said. “We had a pandemic plan that was not just based on the most severe strain, H5N1, but we already had a plan on how we would deal with a mild pandemic.”
Last year’s pandemic, which was mild, did not force the University to evacuate, he said.
ASU had purchased a large amount of Tamiflu and masks in 2006 in preparation for a situation like H1N1, though at the time there was no way of knowing what was going to happen.
“Whatever flu that came down the pipe, we wouldn’t have to be looking for medicine to treat people — that was key,” Markus said.
ASU, like Arizona, doesn’t have the surge capacity to handle a widespread outbreak, he said.
Not having enough emergency rooms, hospitals and the people to staff them remains problematic, Markus said.
“If this was a more severe illness, there are not really enough staff to handle the capacity that would be needed. In this case [2009] we were lucky because it was a mild disease,” he said.
Despite that, Markus said, a lot of the emergency departments were filled up in April 2009.
“That tells me that if this was during a more serious time, we would have a hard time taking care of that many people,” he said. “Especially here at ASU, where we have a town of 69,000.”
ASU will be creating a medical reserve core, a group of people who can act as eyes and ears within the community, performing basic, triage-like services.
“These individuals, using very well-documented guidelines, would be able to identify things like when patients would be needed to be pulled in [to a hospital] or if they could treat themselves,” Markus said.
Essentially, they would be extended emergency responders, he said.
Health officials agreed that while planning was sound, the logistics to provide the vaccine were difficult in 2009.
“The biggest problem throughout the whole pandemic was really the issue of the timing of the vaccine, and that probably hurt the response more than anything else,” Humble said. “If you look back at the Arizona pandemic, it is really all about October. We didn’t get any vaccine until Oct. 1 and even then the initial deliveries were really small. The vaccine came about four weeks after we really needed it.”
Arranging the movement of resources through the federal government and points of vaccine dispensing were problematic in the state, he said.
Arizona’s strengths included being able to stockpile assets once they were obtained and the number of children that were vaccinated.
“We did pretty good with kids throughout the pandemic,” Humble said. “We got 30 to 50 percent — depending on the county — of schoolchildren vaccinated throughout that fall.”
State health officials agreed that Arizona leaders need to do a better job at getting the vaccine to health care workers who have direct care with patients.
On campus, Rimpi Saini, a molecular biology sophomore and chair-elect of student group Health and Counseling Student Action Committee, is working closely with administrators to help raise health awareness on campus.
During the H1N1 pandemic, Saini’s committee was dedicated to stopping the spread of the flu.
“We wanted to stop H1N1 and also the spread of the seasonal flu,” she said.
The committee did this in part by designing 10 variations of information stickers and posting them in bathrooms all across ASU, reminding students to practice good hygiene.
“The safety of students is really up to the students,” she said. “But our message was to try to stop the spread of the flu.”
Markus said ASU remains prepared for future health-related problems.
“In the past we used all channels possible to communicate with students,” he said. “You put the right information out and you do the best you can to get that information out there and then you let the chips fall where they may.”
Reach the reporter at kpatton4@asu.edu
