No sick Scouts

[Eamonn]

While I don't ever want to become an old "Mother Hen"!!

I do accept that kids involved in Scouting do face certain risks. If we were to remove all the risk, what we were able to offer would be a very lame program.

Of course we do our best to make Scouting as safe as we can and remove any unnecessary risks.

 

This past summer a lot of scouts at our council summer camp got sick. The camp was visited by a lot of different State Departments (Health, Agriculture..) They tested the water and looked around the kitchen.

Sadly the kitchen had never had a visit from the Health Inspector and had never been inspected.

The kitchen itself is not dirty, but a lot of things that would be done in a normal commercial kitchen were not being done.

No real records of cooking temps and serving temps.

Some of the refrigeration is not that great.

As far as I'm aware none of the staff are ServSafe trained.

No "Sample Trays" of food are kept, which could be tested in an event where it seems like the Scouts are coming down with an outbreak of food-borne illness.

We need to do what we can to ensure that the food being served to our Scouts is safe.

Not just at summer camp but at all camps.

Hand washing goes a long way to prevent spreading infection.

Bathrooms at camps need to have adequate hand washing facilities and we need to stress to our Scouts how very important it is for them to wash their hands after using the bathroom. We need to ensure bathrooms have the supplies. People will go and request more TP, but fail to mention that there is no soap or disposable hand towels!!

I know every Mom in the world teaches their son this!! But at times kids at camp seem to think that home rules don't apply at camp!! Scouts cooking need to wash their hands a lot and be taught about cross contamination, while wearing hand protection (gloves) might seem a little over the top! Maybe it's not such a bad idea.

Here in our end of PA. We have had a lot of kids get MRSA. (Mt. Lebanon High School in Pennsylvania has been hit hard: 13 members of its football team, the Blue Devils, came down with MRSA infections this year.)

"Everyone agrees that this an epidemic. And not only is it an epidemic. But, it's an epidemic of our times. It's here in huge numbers," says Dr. Robert Daum, an infectious disease pediatrician at the University of Chicago Medical Center."

It would be foolhardy for us to ignore it.

A Scout is Clean!! We need to talk with them and explain why being clean is so very important and why they should not share towels and clothing that has been worn by others.

There is nothing in the world that tears my heart out like seeing a sick kid! I in no way want to come off as sounding that we are "Sissyfying" (Not a real word??) Scouting, but we do need to do what we can to prevent Scouts from becoming sick.

Eamonn.

 

 

[Gold Winger]

You really have to wonder how mankind survived all those years without soap.

[local1400]

E. I am a self proclaimed "Germ-a-phobe". I was an assistant cook for two summers at my councils camp. Every year, OSHA, the State Healh Inspector, and BSA Regional Inspectors visited our camp. Is that not how it goes in PA? Every one had the authority to close the camp if it deemed necessary, so cleanliness and proper procedure was vital. Kitchen crew worked 6 am until midnight or 1 am, and dinner was over by 7 pm, so we cleaned and sanitized every night. We did not go to bed until it was done right and inspected by the camp director.

[OldGreyEagle]

Most cultures had a life expectancy of under 30 years

[scoutldr]

MRSA (methycillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) is a product of germophobes, those of us who would be rushed off to the Dr at the first sniffle for a "penicillin shot", even though viruses do not respond to antibiotics. Doctors would be between a rock and a hard spot trying to deny patients their "treatment"...it's bad for business. In grad school (Public Health), we learned about a study that showed that a patient's satisfaction with their Doctor directly correlated to the number of prescription slips that they walked out with. MRSA is found in most of our noses...only in a few people it takes hold and causes an infection. That's why handwashing and personal hygiene is so important. Closing a school and disinfecting every surface is mainly a PR move...as soon as the kids come back in, the germ is back.

 

The downfall of mankind will not be from terrorists or global warming. We will be wiped out by "superbugs" that we have created by our over-use of medications and "antibiotic" products. Coupled with the fact that today's kids are raised in a sterile enviroment, not getting the chance to wallow in the dirt developing antibodies to common microbes.

[AvidSM]

The summer camp we attended this year had an outbreak of Novo virus the month before we attended. My hands have never been cleaner the week we attended! Hand sanitizer was squirted in your hands at every door we entered - dining hall, trading post, etc. There was no outbreak when we were there or for the rest of the summer. I expect the same sanitation regime when we attend next summer.

 

I, too, have a probem with people who run to the doctor every time they get a bad cold or virus, asking for some anibiotics. When you wipe out all but the resistant germs in your system, your inviting them to take over!

 

A "Scout is Clean" as possible (without having a OCD).

[local1400]

I don't like germs, I'm not a hypochondriac. Besides, medical facilities are some of the filthiest places around.

[Eamonn]

Sadly here in PA the inspection of places that serve food is left up to the PA Department of Agriculture. Some counties do have first class inspectors who are employed by the county and some towns also have their own inspectors.

The county where I live is happy to leave inspections up to the Department of Agriculture.

There really isn't enough inspectors and trying to get them to visit a camp, while the kitchen is in full operation can be very difficult.

Not so many years back the role of the inspector was seeing that kitchens were clean, today ensuring that food is cooked throughly and kept at the correct temperatures is the big thing.

Finding and paying qualified people to work in Summer Camp Kitchens is not an easy task.

The Allegheny County Health Department has a really good fact sheet on MRSA.

http://www.achd.net/mrsa/MRSAMain.html

 

Proper hand washing with soap and water and drying with a single use towel is the best way of preventing the spread of a lot of the infections that kids can get at summer camp.

This is something that needs to be explained to all the Scouts and leaders as part of the pre-camp information.

Ea.

[scoutldr]

It's "Noro-virus", CDC shorthand for "Norwalk-like", the virus that haunts cruise ships. When I worked in a shipyard, I got to board a cruise ship (which shall remain nameless) that came in for emergency repairs. The dirtiest, nastiest place on board was by far the galley. I will never take a cruise, or if I do, I will take my own food and drink only bottled libations.

 

 

[evmori]

We've always gone by the 5 second rule. If ya drop it & pick it up in 5 seconds, it's still edible!

[Ohio_Scouter]

Our guys go a full 10 seconds. Somehow, they're convinced that germs can't move that fast.

[Gunny2862]

Food preparation areas are notorious for being nasty. It's why we do(or have done) health inspections on workers and the preparation areas themselves.

 

I worked on scales for a while. You would simply not believe some of the disgusting things that were allowed to rot in/around/under a scale in kitchen food prep areas because the staff would not do their due diligence in cleaning around them. There is one restaurant(which shall remain nameless) at which I will still not drink anything that comes from under the counter - 8 years later.

 

On the other hand, personal cleanliness is one thing - especially on an extended foray in to the wild. Cooking for others is another, especially in a Camp environment where the required implements to stay clean are available, is another.

[Eamonn]

"We've always gone by the 5 second rule. If ya drop it & pick it up in 5 seconds, it's still edible!"

If you could see the bacteria that is on the item of food that has been dropped, the five second rule would be done away with!!

Think of all the places your shoes/boots have been and is saving that piece of food worth getting sick over?

Ea.

 

[ASM857]

Ea I understand your concearns but when I was a Scout in the 70's we rinsed with water & soap. For our troop we have both soap & water and the lovely sanitizer hand gel, that is recomended to be used. Kid's will be kid's so we let them go unless we see a health risk such as undercooking meat, thats when we step in and ask the question is that done? As a whole they are clean, and a good bunch of boy's.

 

YIS

Doug Buth

[hops_scout]

Eamonn, you gotta remember... we live in a world full of bacteria. It's everywhere!!

 

In my biology class last year, we took samples of different surfaces throughout the school. You want to guess what was the cleanest spot we could find in the school? How bout the dirtiest?

 

Ok, the weight room was absolutely digusting-- no surprise really. We had 4 cases of staphylococcus aureus at my high school in a week's time. All of it out of the weight room. Then 3 weeks later they had two cases at the junior high. Two cheerleaders got it and I believed they replaced all of the tumbling mats that they had bought a few years ago. None of it was the MRSA. The administration threatened to essentially shut down the football team the first week of the playoffs! Coach was told on that Wednesday or Thursday that any player with any cuts or open sores was not going to be allowed to play. After 13 weeks of football, that's nearly everyone! Luckily, a physician stepped in and ended that idea.

 

Personally, I'm shocked that weight room hasn't produced more cases of staph. But I guess the people that are in there the most have been able to fight it off without it breaking out.

 

Like stated above, we live with staphylococcus aureus on our bodies all the time.

 

We have overreacted once again and it's likely to lead to even more issues if we're not careful.

 

I have a friend here at school who chronically has staph outbreaks. She has to go get the sores drained every few weeks. She has said that they told her the only solution to kill it all off is a heavy dosage of penicillin for like a year. But she's allergic to penicillin so she can't do it!