Pretend it’s January 2009, and health officials from Thailand just confirmed a widespread outbreak of a new influenza strain in humans. The illness has afflicted more than 1,000 people, according to a midmorning media conference.

With about 30 individuals already dead, the influenza strain, which was first contained to rural farming villages, has stricken more than 50 patients in Bangkok.

And within three weeks, the outbreak ballooned across international boundaries, made its way to Washington and arrived on Georgetown’s Main Campus.

More than 30 graduate students from two courses – microbiology’s Social Perspectives on Biodefense and the Law Center’s Global Health Law – came together on Oct. 25 to help answer how the world health community should respond to this hypothetical situation if such an outbreak actually occurred.

The mock crisis, sponsored by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, gave students the opportunity to play the parts of health, government and other officials from Thailand, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States government, the District of Columbia and Georgetown University.

“Both classes have been working up to this big moment,” said Jeff Collmann, an associate professor at the School of Nursing and Health Studies, who teaches the microbiology course. “This type of interdisciplinary academic collaboration on emergency planning is a first for Georgetown as far as anyone knows.”

Collmann, who also serves as director of the O’Neill Institute’s Center for Disease Prevention and Health Outcomes, and Michael Stoto, professor of health systems administration at the School of Nursing and Health Studies, watched as the students went into their roles.

“I want you to stay in character,” instructed Stoto, who facilitated the daylong event, held in St. Mary’s Hall.

Chandra Lesniak (G’09), acting as Thailand’s minister of health, warned that the situation could be a “serious, serious problem” if the illness infected more people.

Reacting as the as minister of commerce, Katherine Andrus (L’11) expressed concern over the effect the outbreak could have on tourism and trade. “There is no need for overreaction at this point,” she said. “We support what the ministry of health is doing, but we also caution that we should not jump to any conclusions.”

As WHO director-general, Benn McGrady (L’09) argued that Thailand was obligated to report the epidemic under international health regulations.

“It’s a significant issue that (should) be reported immediately,” he said.

As the scope of the illness broadened, students faced increasingly difficult decisions, such as whether the WHO should be alerted; whether there were enough doctors, nurses and medication; how the legal rights of individuals would be protected; and whether people needed to be quarantined.

The university’s safety vice president, Rocco DelMonaco, also observed the students during the mock crisis and offered his feedback.

“The emergency scenario brought me back to my days in incident management at the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. “It is interesting to do this work in a scholastic environment. Conducting the exercise prepares students to go out into the world of operations and either hold similar exercises or manage the real thing.”  

Professors agreed that the Saturday morning activity helped the students hone their skills and would eventually wind up helping the greater public once they graduate.

“We’re providing a service to the coming generation because these students are going to be the leaders when a real outbreak occurs,” said Lawrence Gostin, the O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law, who teaches the global health law course. “We’re training the next leaders to understand law, science, public health and ethics and also to apply them in a public emergency.”

-- Bill Cessato, Blue & Gray Contributing Writer

(November 3, 2008)