Ohio Pandemic Influenza

The Ohio Department of Health has developed a Pandemic Influenza Toolkit for Ohio Schools. The kit contains planning information, guidance on disease surveillance and reporting, infection control measures, sample media releases and more. Kits were sent to school districts and local health departments in early 2007. Download your copy here.

Are you looking for ways to engage your students while teaching meaningful lessons on health? Would you like to open communications in your community about the potential impact of a flu pandemic on your district? We might have some publications to help you. For some classroom activities, download some coloring pages from our publications library or the 2007 Be Healthy, Be Prepared coloring book calendar. Talk to your local health department about materials available to them for conducting a tabletop exercise in your county. Contact your local health commissioner .

Being prepared for an influenza pandemic can help protect the health of staff members and students. Experts believe a worldwide outbreak, or pandemic, of influenza will happen someday. Preparing for a pandemic is much like preparing for other emergencies. During a pandemic, schools and daycares may be temporarily closed to lessen the spread of flu. While many schools have systems in place for notifying staff and students of “snow days” there are still other issues to think about.

There were three flu pandemics last century: 1918, 1957 and 1968. The following passage from the 1957 Ohio Department of Health annual report provides an overview of the flu's impact on Ohio schools.

Influenza was usually noted first in communities in school populations. These school outbreaks were usually sharp with many acutely ill students being sent home from school during the first several days of the outbreak. High absenteeism resulted, occasionally as high as 80 percent on some days. Generally, the first to be affected were children of junior or senior high school age, with rapid spread to younger age groups. . . Two telephone surveys were completed involving children and families associated with schools in which outbreaks had occurred. These were done in Lucas County and Columbus. Attack rates of 54 and 65 percent were reached in the school children during the three weeks following the beginning of the outbreak. Approximately 33 percent of the family contacts had also become ill, during this period, while almost one-half of the families reported no illness. The disease was usually not severe, lasting 3 to 5 days. The mean duration of absenteeism was approximately three days.

Devoting time and resources to planning is important; even if the current H5N1 avian (bird) flu virus circulating overseas does not emerge to cause the next pandemic, another eventually will.

Last Updated June 27, 2008

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