A targeted programme of preventive antiviral medication, combined with the use of hand sanitisers and surface contamination, was associated with containing the spread of the H1N1 virus in a summer camp setting, according to a new report.
With rare exceptions, the H1N1 virus has retained sensitivity to the antiviral medication oseltamivir phosphate. The drug has been proven to prevent the spread of seasonal flu in settings such as households and nursing homes.
Against that background, doctors investigated the targeted use of the drug in containing the spread of H1N1 at a boys’ camp in Alabama in July of 2009. A total of 171 campers, 48 camp counsellors and 27 camp staff were involved. Three campers tested positive for H1N1 during one of the camp’s two-week sessions.
These received oseltamivir and were immediately isolated and sent home. All campers and counsellors in the infected child’s adjoining cabins took oseltamivir prophylactically for 10 days. In addition, alcohol-based hand sanitisers were provided throughout the camp; counsellors also received advice about the spread of influenza and its prevention.
All surfaces in communal areas were also sprayed or wiped down every day. No additional campers, counsellors or staff members became ill during the session and no campers tested positive for H1N1 after returning home. The three infected campers constituted an attack rate – the percentage of individuals who get sick out of the total population – of 1.8 per cent.
Some 78 per cent of the staff and counsellors and about 31 per cent of campers experienced one or more adverse events, such as nausea, vomiting or headache, from the medication. However, none of the adverse events resulted in discontinuation of the therapy.
Online edition of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, available at www.jamamedia.org
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