Flu Battles at Camp Spark Fears for School Year

Purell abounds; symptomatic kids sent home
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 27, 2009 1:31 PM CDT
Flu Battles at Camp Spark Fears for School Year
Samang, right, of Thailand, helps children from the Smithsonian Summer Camp to use shadow puppets at the 41st annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington June 27, 2007.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

With a swine flu resurgence expected in the fall—before an H1N1 vaccine is available—schools are getting a head start on fighting the disease, the Los Angeles Times reports. The scene at summer camps may provide a preview: Hundreds of youngsters in Southern California alone have been sent home to recover from symptoms, and kids are arriving armed with Tamiflu as administrators try to make schools as flu-proof as possible.

Nurses are checking kids’ temperatures before they get on camp-bound buses, visiting days are being canceled, and high-fives have been banned. “We're all getting habitual with our Purell,” says a camp director. University of California campuses are following camps’ lead, gathering paper masks, hand sanitizer, food, and water. “If we prepare for the worst, then we're going to get a better outcome,” says a UC official.
(More swine flu stories.)

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