More than 50 University of Wyoming faculty and staff members took part in a tabletop planning exercise Tuesday, Sept. 15, to examine UW's preparedness for a pandemic outbreak of influenza.
The exercise, held in the Wyoming Union, presented a series of escalating scenarios over the course of four hours and required the departments taking part to respond, according to their pandemic flu plans. Albany County Public Health also participated in the exercise.
"It was a valuable, hand's-on exercise," Mark Collins, associate vice president for administration, says. "We'll be able to integrate the lessons from this exercise into our long-term pandemic planning."
The feedback from the exercise, Collins says, has been extremely positive.
For more than two years, staff and faculty have been developing a plan to deal with an outbreak of avian flu. When the H1N1 virus appeared in the spring, many of the plans already in place were able to address concerns arising from that outbreak.
In fact, the H1N1 virus is present at the Laramie campus, and work is under way to slow the spread of the virus. Physical Plant employees are installing 22 hands-free sanitary stations across the campus, and information posters have been distributed in buildings across campus urging good practices to slow the spread of illness.
Posted on Saturday, September 19, 2009