Pandemic influenza information for instructional faculty

Take the following steps ALL the time and not only during a flu season/pandemic to help keep your students and yourself from getting sick with flu and other contagious diseases:

• Educate and encourage students to cover their mouth and nosewith a tissue when they cough or sneeze and provide them with easy access to tissues. Remind them to cover their mouth with the inside of their arm or elbow instead of their hand when a tissue is not available.
• Remind students to practice good hand hygieneand provide the time/supplies (running water and soap or alcohol-based hand cleaners) for hand-washing as often as necessary.
• Be a good role modelby practicing good hand hygiene yourself and covering your own mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
• Be very conscious of “community surfaces” that are touched by many different people during the course of a day since they are prime areas for passing contagious organisms. Some of these surfaces are cleaned once a day while others are cleaned less frequently. Consider strategies that can protect or clean these surfaces that you and your students have frequent contact with (if you have specific concerns, notify your building supervisor)
• Keep an eye out for sick students and tell them to go home. Have them call Student Health to report their illness at 706-721-3448 and in all cases, notify their Dean’s Office by phone or email. Sick people should stay at home until at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever (without fever-reducing medicine). Most students with H1N1 recover in 3-4 days.
• Faculty/Instructors should also stay home when sick.Stay home until at least 24 hours after you no longer have a fever or signs of a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medicine).
• If you are pregnant, have asthma, diabetes, or other conditions that put you at higher risk for complications from the flu, you should speak with your doctor as soon as possible if you develop symptoms of flu-like illness. People at high risk for flu complications who develop flu can benefit from early treatment with antiviral medicines.
• If you are sick with flu symptoms and live with another person who is in a high risk category, please have them contact their health provider.
• If you have children, plan ahead for child care if your child gets sick or their school is cancelled. Vaccination is the best method for preventing flu and its potentially severe complications in children. See this website for more details: www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/children.htm
• Be prepared in case the incidence of flu becomes more severe:
  • Develop options for how school work can be continued at home (e.g., lesson packets, Web-based lessons, group email) if school is dismissed or your students are home because someone in their household is sick.
  • Be prepared for some sick students/staff to stay home for 7 days, since the course of flu can vary. In all cases, they should stay home until symptom-free for 24 hrs.
  • Plan to assist high-risk students in study continuity if they need to stay home per doctor recommendation. These students should make this decision in consultation with their physician or other health professional.
  • Find ways to increase social distances(space between people) in your classrooms. Rearrange desks/encourage students to spread out in classrooms/labs if space permits.For further information see www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/institutions/guidance