A Waterborne Gastroenteritis Outbreak Caused by a GII Norovirus in a Holiday Camp in Catalonia (Spain), 2017

On 2 February 2017, Epidemiological Surveillance Services were notified of an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) among schoolchildren who had taken part of a school trip from 30 January to 3 February 2017 at a holiday camp in Catalonia. A retrospective cohort study was performed to identify the causative agent, estimate the magnitude of the outbreak and identify its source, as well as to determine the route of transmission. Data collected by standardised questionnaires identified 41 episodes of AGE among 174 individuals who attended the camp. Cases had mainly symptoms of abdominal pain (73.8%), nausea (64.3%), vomiting (54.8%), diarrhoea (45.2%) and headache (42.9%). Consumption of water was associated with gastroenteritis (crude RR: 1.72, 95%CI: 1.01–2.92; adjusted RR: 1.88, 95%CI 1.03–3.56). NoV GII was detected in faeces (5 out of 13) and water samples. Additionally, faecal indicator bacteria and protozoa were detected in water samples. The outbreak showed a high attack rate and was caused by a natural water fountain not properly treated and not monitored for safety quality. There could have been a discharge of wastewater at a point close to the fountain; however, the source of contamination of the water could not be identified. Health education may be useful to eliminate risks associated with the consumption of untreated water from natural fountains.

Campsites as Utopias?

This paper contrasts the objectives that underlie the development of government-funded holiday camps for family vacations in Belgium with the socio-spatial practices of their initial users. Drawing on oral history, archival material, photographs and site plans, we argue that holidaymakers did not just experience the holiday camp as an environment where they could reconnect with their family and pursue authentic experiences in close contact with nature – as their initiators had intended – but that they also embraced these sites as places where they could recreate a romanticised version of “traditional” community life and experiment with facets of a middle-class, modern suburban ideal. To substantiate our narrative, we focus on two holiday camps in the Campine Region: Zilvermeer and Hengelhoef.

The Battle of Butlin's: Vulgarity and Virtue on the North Wales Coast, 1939–49

At the outbreak of the Second World War the holiday camp entrepreneur Billy Butlin agreed a secret deal to build an Admiralty training camp near Pwllheli in North Wales. The camp would be transferred to Butlin at the end of the war for use as a holiday camp. Whilst planners were initially horrified, the strategic argument that such camps would concentrate coastal development and also provide the necessary places for the expansion of ‘holidays with pay’ prevailed. More sustained opposition came from those concerned about the imposition of a culture of urbanised mass leisure on the Welsh heartland of the Llŷn Peninsula. For some, the threat was ‘bathing beauties’ and alcohol; more profoundly, many feared the destruction of a Welsh-speaking rural polity. National sentiment rallied around an alternative social service camp and an overt form of Welsh nation-building. Nonetheless, Butlin won the case and the holiday camp opened in 1947.

The Barretstown Experience: A Rite of Passage

Barretstown Castle Holiday Camp for seriously ill children may have long-term beneficial effects on children with life-threatening illnesses. The presented evidence suggests that the experience is a contemporary rite of passage. The different stages of separation, transition and reaggregation can be identified. The separation from family and civil society is remarkably complete. Established norms no longer prevail in the transitional phase of liminality. Communitas and I-thou relationships become the mode of interaction. Barretstown added the dimension of Therapeutic Recreation to an American camp experience. The structured sequences of Therapeutic Recreation mediated by caras (councillors) encourage personal change. The Barretstown experience may be a life-enhancing ritual process and an important social experience in chronic severe childhood illnesses.

SARS Special Report — Preventive Measures

For Travelers. For Airlines. To All Licensees of Food Premises. To All Licensees of Non-Food Premises. Organizers of Environmental Activities. To All Hotel/Guesthouse/Holiday Flat/Holiday Camp Licensees. For Trade and Industry Sector.