Association of Colleges

Swine Flu Update

Publication date: 28 June 2009

Swine (H1N1) Influenza - Update June 2009

The World Health Organisation has now moved to Phase 6, which means that ‘swine flu’ is now, technically, a global pandemic.

AoC and DBIS have continued to work closely on managing this issue. Now, DBIS has issued an update to its guidance.

This update covers:

• Implications for the UK - number of cases reported, likely lull over the summer, followed by a surge in the autumn. (Of course, this weekend, UK had its first death of an infected person. However, it is not certain how much, or if, swine flu contributed to the fatality.
• Implications for Colleges - including advice for staff and students displaying symptoms.
• A number of links for further information.
• Advice on what a College should do
  • keeping staff and students informed
  • how to reduce risk of infection (now being backed up by national TV advertising)
  • consider measures to help students with learning difficulties, international students and others
  • managing media attention
  • a recommendation to revisit contingency plans and make sure that they cover a number of key areas of impact that swine flu could have (this supplements advice given in AoC H&S Briefing 07/09)
     

The guidance can be downloaded here:
Swine Flu - Information and Advice from DIUS

 

"Decontamination"

A member College has contacted AoC after it was approached by a commercial organisation, offering a "decontamination" service in the case of swine flu affecting any of its staff or students.
The College wanted information on the effectiveness of such a service and whether it should be planning for it, in terms of the substantial cost etc.

AoC has now received a statement from Justin McCracken, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency who states:

Thank you for your e-mail and for sending the Rentokil advertisement.
Environmental cleaning has been the subject of considerable dialogue amongst representatives of various government departments, their stakeholders, Cabinet Office and the HPA. 
The approach taken by Rentokil seems unnecessarily alarmist and gives a certain urgency to the situation which is not justified in practice.  The notion that one of their squads can come in and render an area “flu-free” in a meaningful way is implausible.  It could also give rise to complacency as the environment could be easily re-contaminated by an infectious person that did not practice proper respiratory and hand hygiene.  The current measures outlined in the guidance for businesses are practical and proportionate to the risk and are recommended to you and your colleagues.

The full text of Justin McCracken's message can be read here:

Swine Flu "decontamination" - advice from HPA

 

---

View all news