Holiday Camp Research Articles

Infectiousness for humans of Ixodes ricinus containing Borrelia burgdorferi

We studied the rate of transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi from ticks (Ixodes ricinus) to man under field conditions in a case control study. At a holiday camp in southern Germany 384 ticks were removed from 272 persons. Information on symptoms possibly related to Borrelia infection were obtained by a questionnaire to be sent back six weeks after the tick bite. Ticks were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy (IFT) for Borrelia and 49 (12.8%) were found positive. Blood was obtained from 41 persons bitten by Borrelia positive and 41 age and sex matched persons bitten by Borrelia negative ticks. Sera from age and sex matched patients of local hospitals and clinics served as additional controls. Antibody titers were obtained by indirect IFT about 13 weeks after tick bite. Titers 1 : greater than 32 suggested recent infection and 1 : 32 immunity. In the exposed group there were about half as many persons with titers 1 : less than 32 (n = 14) than in the control group (n = 27) suggesting that either part of the infected ticks was in a non-infectious state or the hosts were immune. In the exposed group there were 46.4% (n = 19) and in the control group, bitten by Borrelia negative ticks, 14.7% (n = 6) persons with titers 1 : greater than 32, but 5/6 of these persons in the control group recalled additional tick bites in 1984. Only one child (in the exposed group) developed an Erythema chronicum migrans, and no other Borrelia related manifestations were reported. The manifestation rate of the Borrelia-related disease was 4%.

Ward, Colin and Hardy, Dennis, "Goodnight Campers! The Story of the British Holiday Camp" (Book Review)

Ward, Colin and Hardy, Dennis, "Goodnight Campers! The Story of the British Holiday Camp" (Book Review)

An excursion into self-monitoring of blood glucose in children.

Abstract Ten adolescent diabetic children monitored blood glucose (BG) concentrations during a British Diabetic Association holiday camp in Denmark. The range of results was wide but revealed a mean pre-breakfast (fasting) BG of 9·8 mmol/l and a mean BG before the main evening meal of 13·2 mmol/l. Before the evening meal eight of ten children had BG concentrations in excess of 13 mmol/l. There was a significant correlation between mean BG concentrations and glycosylated haemoglobin. The procedure was well accepted and proved to be of considerable educational value. It clearly revealed the children whose diabetes was satisfactorily controlled and those in whom adjustments of management were required. It is suggested that similar phases of self-measurement of BG in their homes will clarify the diabetic control of many children and thus help to improve it.

Influence of aerobiology and weather on symptoms in children with asthma.

Local and central European weather, pollen (Castanea and Poaceae) and spore (alternaria and cladosporium) counts, and asthmatic complaints and drug requirements (expressed as "attack score") were correlated in a group of 40 asthmatic children (21 with recurrent symptoms) during a summer holiday camp for 6 weeks. It was shown that there are significant correlations between the cumulative 24-hour pollen count over 6 weeks and the attack frequency. 2-Hourly counts or daily counts did not correlate with complaints. Consecutive 10-day averages of attacks and pollen and spore counts showed good agreement. The influence of local weather was negligible. Low pressure gradients or high atmospheric pressure was not beneficial. Improvements of lung function are ascribed to training effects.

INTEGRATION OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE (CRF) IN A HOLIDAY CAMP

In the past holiday activities for children with CRF have mainly been confined to patients on regular hemodialysis (HD). It appears rational to include children at all stages of CRF, since the different forms of treatment are interchangeable. A 4 - week summer holiday camp was organized in a resort institution for a combined group of CRF patients, age 8 - 18 years, on HD (n = 7), after transplantation (TP, n = 7) and on conservative treatment (CT, n = 12). Impressive differences in behaviour were noticed between the 3 groups, but a mutual adaptation took place during the stay. TP patients became the natural leaders and acted as ‘experts’ for HD problems, thereby assisting HD patients and overcoming better their own anxious feelings about possible re-dialysis. HD patients tried successfully to abandon their overprotected life style, and CT patients started to accept ideas on later HD. The exchange between the 3 groups, sustained by the medical and psychosocial team, contributed to emotional stabilisation and maturation. In our experience holiday camps for mixed groups of CRF children and adolescents are more beneficial than activities restricted to a single group.

Edna's last stand,orJoe Orton's dialectic of entertainment

'Lie on the couch with your hands behind your head and think of the closing chapters of your favourite work of fiction. The rest may be left to me'. Thus Dr. Prentice behind a camouflage of entertainment seeks to have sex with his patient. Thus Joe Orton behind a facade of fun seeks to screw us. The success of the manoeuvre is indicated by the number of years it has taken the critical establishment to spot what he has been doing. Of the dramatists of the sixties he is still one of the most popular: productions of his plays appear with steadily more frequency, two plays have become films, three plays were written for television. In terms of audiences he was/is in the big time. But the idea of popular drama has more exciting ramifications. The work for the stage went alongside a guerrilla campaign against the literate middle-class: he altered dust-jackets and illustrations of library books (in protest against the pulp people were served), he infiltrated letters pages to ape the public displays of moral horror, he enticed theatre audiences to participate in the destruction of the conventions of theatre. His drama is one that uses and analyses the institutions of society. Erpingham Camp, in the television play ofthat name, is a holiday camp. The institution which supplies entertainment is central to Orton's work, and we learn more about the idea of entertainment when we meet Erpingham. He is planning new sites for camps: 'Rows of Entertainment Centres down lovely, unspoiled bits of the coast, across deserted moorland and barren mountainside. The Earthly Paradise'. (Erpingham Camp, 49)1 His plans threaten National Trust bird sanctuaries, but 'Human beings need sanctuaries, Riley, as well as birds'. The end is clear: 'I shall be a millionaire by the 'seventies', (p. 49). Not only is entertainment an industry, but it transmits a system of values. Usually we think of entertainment as an alternative to a world of values and meanings. 1 Quotations taken from Methuen publications of the individual plays (1967-70), except for Entertaining Mr. Shane in New English Dramatists 8 (Penguin, 1965). Complete Plays used where indicated.

The Disappearing Natterjack

The natterjack toad is decreasing rapidly in Britain. This is particularly true of its largest population on the dunes of south-west Lancashire, where developments in the form of houses, roads and a holiday camp have deprived it of habitat. Even more serious, say the authors, who have made a survey of this toad in Britain for WWF, is the drying out of the dune slacks, the freshwater pools where the natterjacks breed, as a result of the lowering of the water table by drainage and abstraction. The artificial substitutes provided so far are not adqeuate and the authors urge the need to create large and suitable breeding pools for the toads.

MEDICALLY SUPERVISED HOLIDAYS FOR DIABETIC CHILDREN

Sending a diabetic child to a holiday camp for a fortnight can be of therapeutic benefit both to him and to his family. These camps are open to all diabetic children aged from 6 to 17 years who live in Great Britain*.

RELIGION AND CULTURE

vivacious Pastor Anthony Joseph of the West African Church of Hope and Glory. The Pastor's style of public address was unusu ally impressive, and built up to an appeal for greater support from the main Christian Churches for the type of small Church he rep resents. The only opportunity for group discussion in the whole meeting followed these presentations. After morning worship the next day there were five more pre sentations. The first was on the part of the Romanian Orthodox Parish, completing the Russian presentation of the evening before (and also the Greek Orthodox presentation at the Greenhills Ecumenical Meeting of the previous January). Next, Rev. Alan Martin presented the fruits of his research into the integration of immigrants into Irish Church congregations: meeting the cultural expectations of incomers to Ireland is a major challenge, so that fully integrated worship is difficult. What works best at present in Irish towns is the use of churches and other buildings at different times by different ethnic groups. A contrary instance was pre sented by Rev Noel Fallows of the Clontarf Methodist Church, whose church and congregation has, as he described it, been revi talised by being virtually taken over by a group of Christians from Rwanda. Church involvement in social justice returned to the agenda with a powerful and indeed rather harrowing account of the work being done by the Spiritans (Holy Ghost Missionaries) for the vic tims of persecution and, in many cases, torture, who are quite numerous in Ireland. The final presentation of the day was by Fr Michael Daly of Stamullen, who described his ministry to those housed at the former Mosney Holiday Camp in his parish, and their integration into the local parish for worship. The concluding event of the meeting was a presentation to Dr David Stevens, since 1992 Executive Secretary of the IICM, the organiser of 'Ballymascanlon', who is taking up a new appoint ment with the Corrymeela Community. The Emmaus meeting showed clearly the intensity and realism of inter-church activity in Ireland during his period in office.

HOLIDAY CAMP IN ISRAEL FOR DIABETIC CHILDREN. EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES, BENEFITS.

HOLIDAY CAMP IN ISRAEL FOR DIABETIC CHILDREN. EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES, BENEFITS.

A holiday training camp for diabetic children.

A holiday training camp for diabetic children.

Diabetic Children's Holiday Camp

Diabetic Children's Holiday Camp

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Physically Handicapped

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Physically Handicapped

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Handicapped

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Handicapped

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Physically Handicapped

Gorleston Holiday Camp for the Physically Handicapped

Holiday Camp at the British Association Meeting

Holiday Camp at the British Association Meeting