UNDATED - There has been an outbreak of swine flu at at least two northeast Georgia youth camps... one day after an outbreak at a Boy Scout camp in Asheville, N.C.
State health officials are confirming sicknesses at Ramah Damon in Rabun Cunty and URJ Camp Coleman in White County. Outbreaks have also been reported at two other camps.
Nearly 60 youngsters were affected at the Rabun County camp and state health officials say they have isolated the most seriously ill of the youngsters.
Kim Ingram, the CEO of Mountain Lakes Medical center in Clayton, says there are 18 probable cases and 40 more possible cases among some kids at Ramah Damon.
She said all patients are being treated with Tamiflu and the hospital has the outbreak under control. Ingram added officials at the camp have been cooperating "one-hundred percent."
At URJ Camp Coleman, at least 15 staff members were taken ill but no youngsters were affected because the camp has not opened for the summer. However, officials say the outbreak will delay the opening of the camp.
ASHEVILLE, N.C., OUTBREAK
Boy Scouts reporting to camp in western North Carolina are being screened for signs of swine flu after 10 Scouts who attended last week tested positive for the disease, authorities said Monday.
Camp Daniel Boone executive Connie Bowes said no new cases were reported this week. Last week's campers moved out Friday and a new group of about 700 from all across the country moved in Sunday into the camp near Asheville.
Bowes said 38 Scouts and staff reported flu-like symptoms last week and sick staffers were quarantined. Nineteen Scouts were sent home. Bowes said the risk to new campers is considered minimal because of the quarantine and because the camp was disinfected over the weekend. Scout masters have been asked not to bring any campers who are ill. Scouts are all between the ages of 11 and 17.
``When you report to camp you go through a medical screening plus a temperature check to make sure that we can, as Barney Fife would say, nip it in the bud,'' Bowes said.
The 10 who tested positive for swine flu were from Dunwoody, Ga., and Palm Beach, Fla., officials said.
Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor said 21 troop members and chaperones who were at the camp last week are presumed to be sick with swine flu.
Camp medical staff will continue to follow the advice of the Haywood County Health Department and screen Scouts once daily and staff twice daily.
``We've discovered some infrared thermometers that you can just swipe across someone's forehead. Those are really great,'' Bowes said. Using traditional thermometers on about 700 people each day would take a lot of time away from camp activities, he said.
Jerry Travers, Scout master of Dunwoody's group, said one of his boys who has asthma is not doing well, but the rest are making speedy recoveries.
Those exposed to the virus can develop symptoms in as little as one day or as many as 10, said Carmine Rocco, director of Haywood County Health Department. Members of the camp staff might be infected and not showing symptoms yet, Rocco said.
(Georgia News Network, Fox 5 and the Associated Press contributed to this story.)
Tuesday
July 1st, 2025
11:37AM
