Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Schools unprepared for pandemics
Published September 21, 2012
Discovery News
When health disasters strike, schools can easily exacerbate the emergency. With so many kids crammed into one place for so many hours of the day, infectious diseases can spread rapidly.
Still, fewer than half of schools around the United States have adequate plans in place to deal with the next pandemic, found a new study
.
To assess school readiness for bioterrorist attacks or flu outbreaks, researchers at St. Louis University Medical Center surveyed about 2,000 nurses in 26 states who worked with kids of all ages, ranging from elementary to high school.
Pandemic? How Mutant Bird Flu Goes Airborne
Eighty-five percent of schools had a written disaster plan as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics,
the researchers reported in the American Journal of Infection Control
. Plans for health emergencies were particularly lacking.
Fewer than half of the plans specifically addressed pandemic preparedness. And just over 40 percent of schools had updated their plans since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which spread through 214 countries, killed more than 18,000 people, and hit school-aged children hardest.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/21/schools-unprepared-for-pandemics/#ixzz27JmiY9ut
Published September 21, 2012
Discovery News
When health disasters strike, schools can easily exacerbate the emergency. With so many kids crammed into one place for so many hours of the day, infectious diseases can spread rapidly.
Still, fewer than half of schools around the United States have adequate plans in place to deal with the next pandemic, found a new study
To assess school readiness for bioterrorist attacks or flu outbreaks, researchers at St. Louis University Medical Center surveyed about 2,000 nurses in 26 states who worked with kids of all ages, ranging from elementary to high school.
Pandemic? How Mutant Bird Flu Goes Airborne
Eighty-five percent of schools had a written disaster plan as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics,
Fewer than half of the plans specifically addressed pandemic preparedness. And just over 40 percent of schools had updated their plans since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which spread through 214 countries, killed more than 18,000 people, and hit school-aged children hardest.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/09/21/schools-unprepared-for-pandemics/#ixzz27JmiY9ut