Half of US summer camps do not have written immunization policy

According to an online survey of U.S. summer camp leaders, 80% agreed that all campers should be fully immunized but only 50% reported that their camps had a written immunization policy.

Carissa Bunke, MD, a resident in the University of Michigan’s categorical pediatrics program, and colleagues partnered with CampDoc.com, an online camp electronic health records system, and the Association of Camp Nursing to conduct an online survey of camp leadership regarding immunizations for children attending summer camp.

According to the researchers, more than 14 million children attend summer camps each year in the U.S. Although each state requires immunizations for children attending public schools, do not have any vaccination mandates for camp, they reported.

Recently, a student attending an overnight camp in Wisconsin became infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the virus spread to 76% of the camp.

The current study included 710 respondents who answered the survey completely, representing 378 U.S. camps. Respondents were directors (44%; n = 164), nurses (26%; n = 98), office staff (16%; n = 60), physicians (3%; n = 13), owners (2%; n = 8), medical technicians (1%; n =3), and other (8%; n = 32).

Eighty percent of leadership (n = 276) agreed that campers should be fully immunized before attending camp, despite only 50% of camps (n = 174) having a reported immunization policy for campers and 39% for staff (n = 133), Bunke and colleagues reported.

According to the study, 54% of camps (n = 181) allowed unvaccinated children with nonmedical exemptions to attend camp. Three percent of camps (n = 10) experienced a vaccine-preventable outbreak, whereas 14% (n = 47) were warned of potential county exposures within the last 2 years. Twenty percent of camps (n = 68) worried they could lose a significant number of campers if they required vaccinations.

According to an analysis, camps were more likely to report having an immunization policy if leadership agreed that all campers should be vaccinated before attending camp (adjusted OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.5-6.2), Bunke and colleagues reported. Similarly, camps were likely to have an immunization policy if they were located in states requiring immunization documentation (aOR, 4.86; 95% CI, 2.9-8) but were less likely to have a policy when accepting nonmedical exemptions (aOR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.1-0.4).

“Primary care clinicians should partner with camp leadership to create immunization policies that are fully aligned with AAP guidelines, and public health stakeholders should continue to advocate for state policies that require documentation of campers’ immunization status to ensure the optimal well-being of all children in camps,” the authors wrote.