12 months ago
BELGRADE (NEWS CENTER) -- About a third of Maine's one hundred summer camps are dealing with outbreaks of the swine flu. According to Maine's Center for Disease Control they deal with it quite well. At Camp Modin in Belgrade, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes are everywhere. Temperatures are taken daily as new campers arrive, and those who show symptoms are immediately quarantined for seven days, even though they usually feel better in three. Even so, with those precautions, 93 people, or about 20 percent of campers and counselors at Camp Modin have fallen ill. "We've had measles, meningitis, MRSA... We've had a number of things come up over the years. But nothing this large scale. Fortunately for our population it was fairly minor", said Howard Salzberg, Camp Modin's Director. Most of the affected camps are hosting campers from states where swine flu has been more prevalent than in Maine. None of the campers has had to be hospitalized.
At the height of its outbreak, Camp Modin begin giving Tamiflu not just to infected camper, but to healthy ones as well, as a preventative. Since then, only one camper developed swine flu, and now all are completely recovered. Still, Maine Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Dora Mills does not recommend using anti-viral medication this way. She says widespread use might breed resistance to anti-viral medication as well as shortages of the valuable treatment.
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