Avian Flu

January 14, 2006

CEA's Health and Safety Committee and CEA international staff around the world are carefully monitoring occurrences of Avian influenza, an infectious disease of birds that has primarily circulated among flocks of birds in Asia, though it has now spread globally.

So far, the disease does not appear to easily infect people, and although human cases of bird flu have occurred, they are mostly among individuals who have regular contact with poultry. However, health officials warn that if the virus mutates to a form that is easily transmitted by humans, widespread infection could rapidly occur possibly resulting in human deaths. This is what the media refers to as a "pandemic".

At this time, the US State Department, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization have not issued any travel alerts or warnings for avian flu-infected areas.

Currently, no changes have been made to any CEA programs with regards to Avian flu. However, CEA strongly recommends that all students studying abroad stay informed about Avian flu by regularly checking the websites of the US State Department http://travel.state.gov/ and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/.