Swine Flu Fears Close Summer Camps for Kids
Children across the nation are being kept out of summer camp for fear they might contract the swine flu. The American Lung Association is advising many of its 50 affiliated camps – including the Colorado’s traditional weeklong sleep-away camp known as Champ Camp, and camps in Tooele, Utah, and Reno, Nev. “We just became increasingly worried,” Curt Huber, director of the American Lung Association of Colorado, told The Associated Press. “Anywhere kids sleep together and eat in the same room, this is going to be a worry.” Those children with asthma or other respiratory diseases are at greater risk from swine flu, Huber said. The camps were closed after four campers were hospitalized after becoming sick at an affiliated camp in Julian, Calif. Heather Grzelka, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Lung Association, said that swine flu “poses a special health risk to children with asthma.” Similar concerns have prompted at least 50 summer camps nationwide to cancel sessions or send campers home early. Last month, the Tucson-Ariz.-based Muscular Dystrophy Association canceled 47 camps in 35 states, a decision affecting some 2,500 campers.

 
Dr.’s Prescription for Elderly: A Couple Drinks Per Day
A couple drinks a day could actually help older folks shield off dementia, a news study found. But, before people 75 and older go out and tie one over, they should know that too much alcohol could trigger dementia. The study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Vienna Monday, found that moderate-drinking elderly folks are 40 percent less likely to develop dementia over six years than are their non-drinking peers. “We were pleased to see that the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol intake reported in middle-aged adults also extend to cognitively normal older adults over 75,” said lead author Dr. Kaycee M. Sink, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told Reuters Health. Although the study by Sink’s team is not the first to look at the association between alcohol use and the risk of dementia, is does have its unique qualities. “It is one of largest, longest studies of older adults living in the U.S. to examine this question; the participants are older than most previously studied; and we were able to look at the effects of alcohol consumption in both cognitively normal older adults as well as those who had mild cognitive impairment.”