NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — A Southern Baptist church in Tennessee canceled Sunday and Wednesday services after cutting short a camp because children were getting sick with flu-like symptoms.
Long Hollow Baptist Church, a 5,000-member church that meets in three campuses north of Nashville, canceled services the week of June 28 after about 600 middle school students and adult staff and volunteers returned from summer camp.
A statement on the church website said several young people became ill at the camp and were treated and isolated from others. When more became ill the following day, church staff decided to end the camp a day early.
Though health officials did not advise them to do so, church leaders also opted to cancel services the week of June 28 "out of an abundance of caution." The church plans to continue with its scheduled July 4 activities and Sunday services on July 5.
A pediatrician told a local television station that students from the church group tested positive for Type A flu, a broad category of viruses that include H1N1, also known as "swine flu."
"Right now, 99 percent of the flu A that is circulating in the United States is the new H1N1 or swine flu," Dr. Catherine Dundon of Goodlettsville Pediatrics Clinic told NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,717 cases of H1N1 have been diagnosed in the United States and its territories since the first U.S. patient tested positive on April 15.
The CDC said most patients who become ill with the virus recover without medical treatment, but there have been 127 deaths attributed to swine flu.
Unless patients have a secondary health issue like asthma, diabetes, pregnancy or a weakened immune system, the primary focus is not on treating the illness but rather preventing spread of the virus.
The World Health Organization raised the level of influenza alert for H1N1 to phase 6, indicating that a global pandemic is now underway.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said there is reason to believe the pandemic would be only moderately severe, but officials do not yet know how the virus will behave in developing countries, where the vast majority of maternal deaths and chronic illness are concentrated.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.