Prevention & Control - Camps

Provide appropriate and accessible hand hygiene stations with running water, soap, and disposable towels or air dryers. Hands should be washed.

• Before, during, and after handling food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• After using the toilet
• After cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• After touching an animal or an animal’s manure (poop) or environment (for example, a stall)
• After removing clothing or shoes that might be soiled by animal waste
• After touching garbage

For steps on how to properly wash hands, visit Handwashing: Clean Hands Save Lives.

• Review and implement recommendations in the Compendium of Measures to Prevent Disease Associated with Animals in Public Settings, 2011 [PDF - 28 pages].
• Consult with veterinarians, state and local agencies, or cooperative extension programs on how to put these recommendations into practice.
• Educate campers and staff, before animal contact, about the risk of animals spreading germs to humans and how they can reduce the risk of illness.
• Provide accessible handwashing stations with soap and clean, running water and position the stations to encourage hand washing when exiting animal areas.
• Supervise children during animal contact and discourage hand-to-mouth activities (for example, nail biting and thumb sucking) and contact with animal manure or soiled bedding.
• Separate animal and non-animal areas. Do not permit any animals other than service animals in non-animal areas as much as possible.
• Do not allow food and beverages in animal areas.
• Remove manure and soiled animal bedding from animal areas promptly.
• Monitor animals daily for signs of illness and ensure that animals receive appropriate veterinary care. Only staff responsible for animal care should have contact with ill animals, animals known to be carrying germs that cause diarrhea in humans, and animals from herds with a recent history of diarrhea.
• Provide potable water for animals.
• Consider limiting contact with calves to after calves are weaned.

• Maintain pools, lakes, and other recreational water venues at the camp to standards set by local or state laws. Maintaining proper chlorine (1–3 parts per million or ppm) and pH (7.2–7.8) levels is the first defense against the spread of most germs in pools.
• Do not swim or enter recreational water when ill with diarrhea. This includes aquatics staff.
• Exclude campers and staff diagnosed with cryptosporidiosis, the diarrheal disease caused by Crypto, from swimming or entering recreational water for two weeks after diarrhea stops. People infected with Crypto can continue to shed Crypto for two weeks after diarrhea stops.
• Do not swallow pool, lake, or other recreational water.
• Practice good swimmer hygiene — shower with soap and before swimming and wash hands (as described above) after using the toilet.

• Maintain wells at the camp to standards set by local or state laws.
• Check camp well(s), at minimum, every spring before the camp opens to make sure there are no mechanical problems.
• Test camp well(s), at minimum, every spring before the camp opens for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, total dissolved solids, and pH levels.

• Maintain food services to the standards set by local or state laws.
• Wash hands (as described above) before, during, and after handling food (for example, harvesting fruits and vegetables or shucking corn). If campers handle food, they should be treated like foodhandlers.
• Wash hands (as described above) before eating food.
• Exclude people ill with diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms from food handling activities.
• Exclude people ill with diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms from preparing or handling beverages or handling ice for beverages.

• Use personal protective equipment (for example, gloves) when cleaning feces (poop) or vomit. Use disposable cleaning products. Wash hands (as described above) immediately afterwards.
• Use personal protective equipment (for example, gloves) when handling bed linens, clothing, sleeping bags, etc. soiled with feces or vomit. Wash hands (as described above) immediately afterwards.
• Wash linens, clothing, sleeping bags, etc. soiled with feces or vomit with detergent in hot water at ≥113°F for at least 20 minutes or at ≥122°F for at least 5 minutes and then machine dry on the highest heat setting. If laundry facilities are not available on site or the recommended temperature cannot be reached, launder the items off site, or double bag them in plastic bags and instruct parents or caregivers on the proper washing and drying procedures, or discard the items.

• Screen campers and staff for diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms as they arrive to camp. Monitor campers and staff for gastrointestinal symptoms while they are at the camp.
• Separate campers and staff ill with diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms from others.
• Develop a list of ill campers and staff, including name, cabin, list of symptoms, and date symptoms start.
• If multiple campers or staff develop gastrointestinal symptoms,
  • notify your local or state health department immediately,
  • increase cleaning of bathroom facilities and high-touch surfaces (for example, door handles), and
  • discontinue salad and sandwich bars, "family-style" service, and buffets — use servers only.