Resident advisers in University of Colorado at Boulder residence halls who are used to helping new students learn their way around campus this fall are dispensing advice about reaching for hand sanitizers and soaps in bathrooms, dining halls and other public places.
Flu season is here, and with it the potential for germs to spread quickly among the 6,000 students who live in 21 residence halls on campus.
With that in mind, CU Housing and Dining Services, in coordination with Wardenburg Health Center, has stepped up efforts to keep students and employees healthy throughout the year. Among their tactics is the message about how the simple act of hand washing can help stop the spread of seasonal flu and other viral illnesses.
Outreach efforts in residence halls will include posters with hand-washing tips in all 323 shared bathrooms and in restrooms in lobbies and other public places. In addition, hand sanitizers have been installed at the front of serving lines in all dining rooms for customer use, said Lauren Heising, coordinator of sales and nutrition in Housing and Dining Services.
Students, staff, faculty and parents will receive informational wallet cards featuring practical tips on how to stop the spread of germs with a Web link that leads to more detailed information.
For the first time this year, CU officials distributed bottles of hand sanitizer at the annual Global Jam, a welcome-to-campus activity for incoming students. Heising said the move was another way to inform new students that living together poses new challenges, as well as opportunities to learn about important public health issues that could affect them.
"We want to be consistent in our response," said Heising, one of several designated pandemic response plan coordinators for the Boulder campus.
Before the start of this year's fall semester, RAs on the Boulder campus received basic health hygiene training from the Student Wellness Committee at Wardenburg. Among other tips, the committee stressed the importance of encouraging students to wash their hands regularly to avoid getting the common cold or flu, which can translate into missed classes, less study time and fewer opportunities to enjoy undergraduate life.
"We don't want to freak them out and say, 'Oh, this is coming,'" Heising said about preparing students and RAs for the possibility of a campus-wide flu epidemic. "The message was more about hand sanitation and how not to get sick."
The residence hall outreach is an ongoing subset of the CU Pandemic Flu Response Plan, a comprehensive effort to prepare the campus for a potential flu pandemic. The United States has not been affected by a deadly flu pandemic for more than 30 years, but some experts believe another could soon emerge.
A pandemic, which is more widespread than an epidemic, is triggered when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity and for which there is no vaccine. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that there is a high risk for the avian influenza (H5N1) or another virus to mutate into a form that causes the next human influenza pandemic. It is still unknown whether this mutation will occur, but the CU community wants to be prepared for any possibility.
Awareness of the potential for influenza pandemics has increased worldwide in recent years following the emergence of the H5N1 avian flu strain, which has led to changes in the way many public and private institutions operate. Health care experts have advised universities, hospitals and other businesses to be prepared for employee shortages due to illness.
While keeping students in class is a top priority for CU, so is keeping employees on the job, especially if a flu pandemic or other health crisis emerges in Colorado and affects the Boulder campus. According to a housing and dining estimate, a major flu pandemic could mean a temporary loss of up to 40 percent of employees, a scenario that could significantly impact the way the department maintains essential services.
As part of ongoing employee training, the housekeeping, dining and other staff are being reminded of the importance of frequent hand washing, and administrators are developing training materials with a detailed plan of action if an epidemic were to arise. Depending on the seriousness of the situation, the increased use of appropriate personal protective gear such as plastic gloves would be required on a day-to-day basis.
Housing and dining employees - already well aware of the virtues of washing their hands and using plastic gloves - would play a critical role in ensuring that on-campus residents had sufficient food and other supplies if flu, mumps or another viral illness were to spread campus-wide.
While residence hall employees are being trained to prepare for a worst-case scenario, it is the potential for seasonal flu and other common illnesses that has them in high gear right now. "We want to have the same message going out to everyone on campus," Heising said.
For now, one of the most simple and effective messages will be simply: Thanks for washing your hands.