SC - Canned Chicken Soup for the Souls of Women Who Cook Too Much...
Elaine Koogler
ekoogler at chesapeake.net
Wed Apr 19 07:44:30 PDT 2000
> Don't know why you folks are panicking about the water at Pennsic, and the
> port-a-castle two step. I've been going to Pennsic since 22, and have never
The Pennsic Plague occured (and I well remember it...), at Pennsic XIII.
At that time the Chirurgeonate and the event staff were caught completely
off guard. The Chirurgeonate did a masterful job of controlling the outbreak
to less than 10 % of the population, forming quarantined areas and setting
aside portapotties just for the sick people. In fact they got a letter of
commendation from the CDC for the job they did.
It was confirmed to be a water-borne Norwalk virus, and was present in
the water samples taken at the site.
Serious efforts were made by the Coopers as a result to upgrade the well
and water distribution system on site, in many cases rendering entire farm
fields unuseable for agriculture due to the presence of underground piping.
these took years to complete.
these outbreaks were regular occurences as these improvements were
made, and Pennsic increased in size and length of time, outstripping the
improvements capacities.
But they were nowhere near as severs, occurring less and less as
improvements were put into place, and the populace were more and more
aware of basic water sanitation.
By Pennsic 22 the size of pensic had peaked at or around the present
number of 8-10 thousand, and most of the cases were then isolated to
more immune challenged people. That is not to say that these precautions
should be abandoned. Far from it.
The panics last year ( and I was a part of that ) were caused by the
drought, as the drought casues a concentration of the nasties in the local
water table. Pennsic Water facilities were able to handle it, specifically
because of a new well that was much deeper (as I am led to understand).
My exwife and many of my household are Chrurgeons, and I assure you that
these cases DID still occur, though not in outbreak severity, and were
handled with sufficient precaution to prevent spread.
Also I personally know of at least three cases of pennsic trots which were
not taken to Chirurgeons point but handled in the affected person's
camp site. ( one was actually taken to a local motel to allow the use at
need of a flush toilet, shower and clean sheets and running water. they
were up and around in a day or so ).
Brandu
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