Today, the only cases of avian flu in humans have involved the transmission of the virus from birds to humans, which can occur through contact with infected birds via droppings or poorly cooked meat. Humans cannot yet contract the virus from one another. However, the consequences of a mutation that allows for the direct transmission of the virus from human to human has recently raised concerns about a worldwide pandemic.
Although the avian flu may seem like a remote issue, restricted to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the College is taking measures to ensure that students, faculty and personnel all become aware of both the possibility of an outbreak of the flu and the measures that are being taken to protect those living in the United States.
Sheila Culbert, the senior assistant to the President of the College, has been chair of Dartmouth's Emergency Management Group for several years. As the head of this committee she said that her job focuses on keeping the planning for the outbreak of such a pandemic at the forefront of the group's agenda.
"I've been trying to make sure that we're aware of what the federal government is saying," Culbert said. "I make sure we stay in touch with local agencies like the local hospital. My job is to keep this in front of people's eyes -- to makes sure that we are doing the planning that needs to be done and that we're moving it forward."
She added that since the avian flu became more of a national concern about six months ago, the committee has been meeting about once a week. These preparations vary in topic from medical response to the evacuation of students.
John Turco, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth who has been closely involved with preparations and planning both on and off campus, said that the threat posed by the avian flu is real.
"It's not a question of if, it's a question of when," Turco said. "If we're not prepared it will make it more difficult to protect people. It's a very frightening scenario but the illness, it's not something that is going to be cured by an antibiotic because it's a virus. We don't really have medications that will turn this into a meaningless minor infection."
Although Turco stressed that the avian flu was not his area of expertise, he did say that he believes the College is somewhat unique in its approach to the issue. For example, Dartmouth's initiative has been headed by the President's office, which gives it more weight on campus, and Dartmouth's approach integrates various departments.
Michael Blayney, Ph.D., director of environmental health and safety at the College, said that his office has begun to buy some of the necessary supplies in the event of a flu outbreak. These supplies include 30,000 n95 particulate respirators and 12 powered air purifying respirators which blow clean air into a hood.
The College has purchased $30,000 worth of the n95 masks and each powered air purifying respirator costs about $500. Culbert explained that a monetary gift given to Dartmouth for the expressed purpose of disaster planning has helped significantly with the monetary burden.
Blayney stressed that even now, supplies like this are on back order. He added that the purpose of the supplies would be to protect those employees and students who remained on campus in the event of a pandemic.
"The question that we have to face in our office is: what do we need to do to create capacity to maintain the campus as best we can?" he said. "That doesn't mean business as usual. We may have a lot of social destruction."
Although the bulk of the preparations for an outbreak of the flu focus on the Hanover campus, students planning on travelling to China for a Foreign Study Program are also being briefed on potential avian flu hazards, according to Professor Justin Rudelson of the Asian and Middle Eastern languages and literatures department.
The program will bring students to areas that are still at risk for the transmission of avian flu from birds to humans.
Rudelson said that in addition to standard vaccines for other diseases students have been warned to stay away from bird droppings and not to eat poorly cooked bird meat.
Rudelson stressed that both he and the College remain in tune to the potential risks associated with this FSP, but that he does not foresee the program being cancelled.
"Avian flu is something that I will be focused on," he said. "I was really encouraged that the College told us what they were prepared to do. The health of students, faculty and employees is more important than the money."
