Dr. Laura Blaisdell and Dr. Tracey Gaslin of the Alliance For Camp Health (ACH) hosted an educational webinar on April 12th for camp leaders and wellness staff. What are our need-to-knows as we approach the summer camp season?
The full recording of the session is available HERE
Access the slide deck from the session HERE
Camps are encouraged to share this information with your summer health staff and volunteers. There are also considerations for Directors and Program Directors as you seek to promote optimum wellness among your staff and whole camp community.
A few takeaways:
Screening Questions: Intake upon the camper's arrival needs to include questions about how they're feeling today, possible infectious disease exposures, and recent international travel. If you have volunteers who come in for a day or the week, you will want to ask similar screening questions and have a plan for what you'll do if someone shows up feeling unwell.
Measles! The U.S. is seeing an outbreak. It is highly contagious, so if someone is presenting symptoms such as the characteristic rash, a "wait-and-see" approach is NOT sufficient. Be sure international staff are vaccinated as they are most vulnerable. Cases must be reported to public health. Have health center staff brush up on diagnostic criteria since they may not have seen it in real life due to herd immunity from the vaccine.
COVID: The highest number of cases at camp happened in summer 2023. The strategies we learned during the pandemic still work (and most are helpful in preventing many kinds of illness, not just COVID): vaccines, hand hygiene, ventilation & staying outside, isolate people with symptoms, mask and distance to prevent spread when exposed, strategically utilize testing.
Define "up-to-date" for COVID vax? To be considered fully-vaccinated this summer, a person needs to have received one COVID shot since fall of 2023.
Are we stocking COVID tests? Most camps will opt not to, as access to free and low-cost tests is no longer widely available. Campers who need to be tested may need to visit an urgent care clinic or their family physician.
Communicable Disease Plan: Make sure your camp has one. Review to make sure it is current for this season.
STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections): Be aware -- several infectious strains are on the rise nationally. Church camp staff are not immune.
Health forms: Be prepared to act on information that you learn from health forms. For example, if a camper has not been vaccinated for measles, will you permit them to join your camp community this week? Camps could be held liable if they had access to health information that they did not utilize in decision-making.
Find more great camp health resources including a pocket guide on MESH (Mental, Emotional, and Social Health), resources on ticks, medication management, and so much more on the ACH website.
Coming up: