Swine Flu May Be Going to Camp This Summer

[indigo girl]

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108599

As the swine flu continues to spread in Minnesota, health officials say the next breeding ground may be summer camps for kids.

Typically, flu season is over long before school ends, but the new swine flu has changed the rules. "It doesn't appear to be waning," said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, the state epidemiologist.

On Friday, the number of confirmed cases of swine flu swelled to 112 statewide, up from 74 the day before, with the number of hospitalized patients nearly tripling to 23, the Health Department reported. Lynfield said she expects the numbers to continue rising as test results come in on a backlog of suspected cases. Last week, new cases were still surfacing at Twin Cities schools, amid scattered reports of high absenteeism.

Yet Lynfield said there will be new challenges when summer camps start to open next week.

"I think the day camp situation will be similar to schools," she said; the state advises anyone with flu-like symptoms to stay home for a week. "What is potentially tough, though, is overnight camps, particularly if kids don't live locally. We can't just say, 'Well, go home for the seven days.'"

Lynfield said her department is scrambling to come up with new guidelines for camps, perhaps sometime next week. But camp operators say they're already taking precautions in case the virus arrives on their doorsteps.

The Minneapolis YMCA has installed hand sanitizers around its day camps and has advised counselors to pack Purell in their backpacks, said Connie Rodosovich, general manager of camping services.

"We are prepared for it," said Rodosovich. She noted that the overnight camps, which typically run one week to three weeks, all have medical personnel on site and that they'll be monitoring campers for flu-like illness. "If they're in remote areas, we would take that camper out, absolutely," she said.

[indigo girl]

15 ill staffers delay camp opening in Cleveland

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2009/06/16/campflu0616.html

They said it would happen so this should come as no big surprise.

At least 15 staff members of URJ Camp Coleman in Cleveland, Ga., have fallen ill, forcing officials to delay the opening of the summer camp for children ages 7 through 16.

In a statement, Rabbi Elliott A. Kleinman, chief program officer for the Union for Reform Judaism, said Monday that about 15 of the camp's 150 staff members had experienced flulike symptoms during the previous 24 hours. Youth campers had not arrived yet and weren't affected.

"Once the nature of the situation is determined, families will be notified as to when the camp will open," Kleinman said. "In the meantime, the URJ cannot speculate as to the cause or the timing of its expected resolution."

The situation at Camp Coleman, which attracts about 800 youths each summer, is among several incidents in which campers or counselors have gotten sick with flulike symptoms. They come at a time when summer camps for youths are starting to kick into high gear.

Last week, as many as 15 members of Troop 434 from All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody got sick while on a trip to Camp Daniel Boone in Haywood County, N.C. According to state health officials, eight campers tested positive for influenza A, with at least one of them testing positive for the novel H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

Troop Master Jerry Travers didn't make the trip, but his 15-year-old son, Christopher, was one of the youths who became ill... Normally, Travers said his biggest worries about Scout camp is whether his guys will be bitten by ticks or get dehydrated or homesick --- not catch the flu.

Health officials' big concern is that H1N1 will come back even stronger in the fall at the same time the seasonal flu period begins. Some people may be surprised that this particular flu virus is still spreading.

"I think because this is new, we really have not had a good sense of what might happen," said Dr. Susan Lance, director of the Office of Protection and Safety for the Georgia Division of Public Health. "We were hoping that it might die down a little bit in the summer, but by all accounts, that doesn't appear to be happening.

[indigo girl]

Campers in Rabun County, Ga., treated for flu

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/jun/17/campers-rabun-county-ga-treated-flu/

It seems perfectly clear to me that if you cannot ID a type A flu, and it is June, it cannot be seasonal influenza!

But, we will allow this public health guy his fantasy that it could possibly be any other kind of flu, and wonder if he has any commonsense.

I guess, I am not feeling very charitable today...It's all those people with no prior existing conditions but dead that are getting to me.

Eighteen ofthe 58 are probable cases of the new flu strain and 40 are possible cases, said David Palmer, the public information officer for District Two at the Georgia Health Department.

Palmer said it has not been confirmed whether any of the cases are the H1N1 virus, better known as the swine flu. The department is waiting on results from tests to determine what type of flu it is, which should be completed later this week.

"Some of the children did test positive with rapid tests that tell the difference between influenza A and B," Palmer said. "It was A, so we're waiting to see what type of flu strain that is."

The 18 probable cases were the campers who tested positive for Influenza A with the rapid test.

The other 40 were not given the rapid test.

Palmer said the department is hesitant to call the outbreak a result of the H1N1 virus without testing to confirm it.

Outbreaks have also been reported at three other camps in North Georgia, but Palmer said those cases are not swine flu.

"We do have confirmed cases of H1N1 in the state, but they're not associated with these camps," he said.

He said there are some viruses that mimic the flu.

[indigo girl]

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/08/swine-flu-detected-kids-camps/?metro&zIndex=128421

I don't know, maybe it's just me but it does not seem very smart to send a bunch of asthmatic kids to summer camp while a pandemic virus is going around killing people with asthma. But, don't go by me...

Outbreaks at 52 camps in 20 states have been reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spokesman Joe Quimby said yesterday. Because the CDC and states don't require such reporting, the true number of camp outbreaks is likely higher, Quimby said.

"When you congregate children together, you are going to see increased clusters of infections," said Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County's public health officer.

At least 27 asthmatic children who attended a pair of American Lung Association camps in Julian and Livermore in Northern California came down with the flu, the organization told parents in a recent letter.

[indigo girl]

Campers masked, quarantined for 'Swine '09'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32099666/ns/health-the_new_york_times

"We've never had flu in the summer like this," said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, Maine's public health director. "We have 33 camps in Maine with outbreaks, and another 10 in the pipeline being tested. Some of them have 70 to 100 kids in isolation, so they're running shadow camps for them."

Dr. Mills and other experts believe the outbreaks here are a barometer for what will happen in the schools this fall.

Of course, swine flu has wrought havoc with summer camps in other states, too. In Georgia, Camp Coleman canceled its first session because so many counselors got sick right before camp started that it seemed impossible to provide a good program. In Vermont, Camp Killooleet had one or two sick children on a Monday soon after camp began, according to its director, Dean Spencer, but that grew to 12 or 15 on Tuesday-so on Wednesday, Mr. Spencer sent all 100 campers home for a week.

But Maine, with more than 100 sleep-away camps, seems to have been hit especially hard. Some camps send children home as soon as they develop a fever-often disrupting the plans that parents had made for those weeks, whether it was a second honeymoon or a chance to paint the kitchen.

But most camps are not sending campers home, instead keeping them in the infirmary, the gym, the arts and crafts building, wherever emergency cots will fit, for the seven-day isolation period.

Camp Modin, with about 380 campers and 130 staff members, had about 90 cases of flu, enough so that both the Beavers cabin and the Teen Center were cleared out and used for quarantine housing.

(hat tip PFI/lauraB)

[indigo girl]

Interestingly enough the article in the post above mentions the physician who talked the camp into giving everyone prophylactic Tamiflu. That would be the Dr. Marc Siegel, famous for debunking swine flu as anything to be concerned about. At least he wasn't concerned until his kid had to go to camp this summer. It's kind of funny...

http://www.slate.com/id/2222549/

Here is one of his articles. I particularly liked the comment about "over reacting nurses" as a cause of school closure. Yet, here he is telling this camp director to give everybody Tamiflu, sick or not. Go figure...And, he thinks everyone else is overreacting.

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/02/siegel_swine_flu_h1n1/

[oramar]

Interestingly enough the article in the post above mentions the physician who talked the camp into giving everyone prophylactic Tamiflu. That would be the Dr. Marc Siegel, famous for debunking swine flu as anything to be concerned about. At least he wasn't concerned until his kid had to go to camp this summer. It's kind of funny...

http://www.slate.com/id/2222549/

Here is one of his articles. I particularly liked the comment about "over reacting nurses" as a cause of school closure. Yet, here he is telling this camp director to give everybody Tamiflu, sick or not. Go figure...And, he thinks everyone else is overreacting.

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/02/siegel_swine_flu_h1n1/

From the"Doctors are always right and nurses are always wrong" school of thought. I have met a few of those.