WHEELING, WV, Sept. 8, 2009 — Over the past few months, Wheeling Jesuit University put together a plan for a campus-wide response to the H1N1 influenza threat.

There are no suspected cases of H1N1 on the campus to date but in order to be prepared for its students and staff, the university posted a general information bulletin on its Web site last Friday and will continue to update the site as more information becomes available.

Another part of the University preparation takes place Thursday morning when the University’s Pandemic Flu Committee conducts a tabletop exercise that follows a mock pandemic outbreak.

Coordinated by John Tagg, the exercise will take about one hour and allow the university to thoroughly review their Pandemic Response Plan. Also in attendance will be officials from the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department.

Tagg is director of the Wheeling-Ohio County Emergency Management Agency, a post he’s held since 1994. He is a certified emergency manager and emergency medical technologist/paramedic. He worked with the university for several months to come up with the tabletop plan and emergency awareness.

“We have worked hard to prepare our campus and community on how to manage the spread of this and any other type of flu virus,” said Letha Zook, Wheeling Jesuit Academic Vice President.

“With the start of the academic year, many campuses across the country are reporting swine flu cases - including a few of our neighbors in Pittsburgh and West Virginia University in Morgantown; reports are that this particular flu spreads quickly. The reality is that Wheeling Jesuit University, like other educational settings, may eventually have ill students and employees,” she said. “We plan to be prepared.”

“The Swine flu is not any more dangerous or deadly than regular seasonal flu strains but younger people, thus college campuses, are particularly vulnerable to this one,” she added.

The 14-person Pandemic Planning Committee includes administrators, faculty and a student representative. The committee will continue to monitor the health of Wheeling Jesuit students and other campus community members as the year goes on.

“We are happy to report that all is going well in our planning. We have informed and educated our staff, students and visitors and hope to continue to keep everyone healthy,” said Christine Ohl-Gigliotti, Dean of Student Development. “We encourage any student with flu symptoms to see our campus nurse immediately for monitoring and we ask our employees who have symptoms to stay in touch with our Human Resources office and to stay home and not report back to work until 24-hours after their last symptom.