For immediate release
Contact Gene J. Evans, (503) 947-5737
May 4, 2007
State Education, Public Health Officials Conduct First-Ever Pandemic Planning Exercise
SALEM – State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo joined Director of Oregon Public Health Division Susan Allan, MD, representatives of the Governor’s office and other top health and education leaders for an unprecedented three-hour planning exercise aimed at taking the first steps toward creating a statewide coordinated response for implementing the cancellation of classes in the event of an influenza pandemic. The exercise was conducted on May 2 at the Oregon Department of Education offices in Salem.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that “community containment,” a coordinated effort to prevent the transmission of a contagious disease without drugs or vaccines, is one of the most effective ways to slow the fatality rate while a vaccine is being developed. Influenza is easily transmitted through close human contact and affects the youth community particularly hard for this reason.
“Due to the large class sizes in Oregon, the experts tell us that cancellation of classes may be one of the best ways to slow the effects of an influenza outbreak. This exercise was the first step in developing a statewide response between our public health partners and the education community,” Castillo said. “I look forward to working with the Governor, the Department of Human Services Public Health Office, school districts and other education partners as we continue the work to develop a pandemic plan.”
"There are some circumstances for which cancelling classes can help save lives and reduce the spread of illness in the whole community, not only for children. Studies of past pandemics show this,” Dr. Allan said. “Our public health and education teams worked together very effectively in organizing yesterday's emergency exercise, and we expect to find many other ways that we can work together for the health and wellbeing of our children and our communities.”
The exercise created a realistic scenario of an influenza outbreak in the United States and walked the participants through a series of questions designed to identify the following objectives: roles and responsibility in the event of a pandemic outbreak; key trigger points for canceling and resuming classes; key components of a public information message and process for communicating with the school community during a pandemic; gaps in the existing authority and procedures to cancel classes.
"The exercise also showed us that we have much more work to do," Castillo said. "I am committed to working together with Public Health and our education partners to continue to work through the issues we identified around cancellation of classes. We owe it to our students and our communities to be well-prepared for an outbreak of pandemic flu. In the end, I hope we will have a plan we can share across the state, and schools will know that the state is ready to help in the event of an emergency."
For more information from the Centers for Disease Control on the community strategy for pandemic influenza mitigation in the United States, visit: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/community_mitigation.pdf 
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Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Gene Evans, Communications Director, Telephone (503) 947-5737
http://www.ode.state.or.us
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