Summer camp is an exciting activity for most youth. Summer camp comes with the end of the school year for many of us. The promise of meeting up with old friends and making new friends is exciting. Parents realize that it takes a dose of education and planning to survive the summer camp experience. Although we look forward to an “uneventful” summer camp experience, there are some things we need to plan to avoid. As time passes we become a more mobile society, often leaving behind and picking up too much along the way.
Bedbugs, Cimex lectularius, appear to be more common lately, often appearing in places and at times where we least expect or hope to find them. Bedbugs can quickly multiply in large numbers, leave us with painful bites and piggyback in our travel items, such as clothing, bedding, and luggage. Thorough hygeine, hot water laundering and pesticide wipe on luggage is a good method to avoid the scourge of the bedbug traveling home with us. The Internet has many websites that offer useful information.
Conjunctivitis, also known as “pinkeye,” is an infection quickly passed among youth often by skin contact with offensive infected matter and then rubbing the eyes. One of the best defenses is to wash hands often. Proper hand washing minimizes the risk of walking around with the offensive matter on the hands and contact with the eye. Take time to learn how to identify pinkeye, report it’s presence to parents and camp administrators and get immediate treatment for the condition. School or camp administrators need to know because of the fast rate at which the infection spreads. Swollen puffy redeyes along with the presence of pus drainage from the eyelid are common signs. A visit to the doctor and prescribed antibiotic usually clears pinkeye up quickly.
If you would like to contribute your experiences and suggestions, just send me a note and I will publish yours here! Michael
Hanus.Academy@gmail.com