(Un)sanitary conditions

[BoyWonder1911]

So this is probably nothing new under the sun, but with the recent news of illness striking at least one drum corps, enough to the point where they had to withdraw from a competition, brings up the issue of the sanitary conditions involved in a touring drum corps.

What kind of things happen do you think that may cause any kind of illness going around like this? Of course, it's not just the "being in close proximity all the time" thing.

And what kinds of things do you think drum corps and their staff and volunteers can do to help the situation, to try and keep things like this from happening?

[actucker]

I don't know that there are a ton of unsanitary conditions that drum corps deal with that are worse than what kids go through in school every day. Its just that its 24 hours a day, and contained to the same group of 200 or so people. One of the biggest things I harp on with groups I teach is NOT sharing water bottles. Everyone is required to have their own. Its easy to think "oh, someone will have water", but that's a surefire way to spread the gunk once one member has it.

[luv4corps]

In OC, we sometimes put out an extra wash bucket and bleach rinse just for the water jugs. Those get very gross. That seemed to stave off some illness we had earlier on. But it is a constant concern for sure.

Edited July 18, 2014 by luv4corps

[chaos001]

A lot of corps have jug days where they bleach and scrub their water jugs. It wouldn't hurt to Lysol all the stuff down in your suitcase and bus.

Edited July 18, 2014 by chaos001

[rayfallon]

If you go into this assuming that corps are not being safe, clean, sanitary this thread is going to head a long way in the wrong direction.

Here are 2 things you can take to the bank, from years of touring experience:

The kids breathe the same air hours and hours at a time on buses - sort of like what teachers go through with youngsters - one kid shows up sick and before you know it?

Here's my controversial statement, which I obviously believe, but I invite you to maintain your own beliefs: No one (repeat no one) on tour sleeps enough, except hopefully the bus drivers. The intensity, the adrenaline, the fact that these kids are self-selected as the ones that push through pain, minor injuries, and illness to succeed, keep them on the edge of exhaustion. My experience is that the immune systems are compromised by mid-season each year. I'm not pretending to be a health care professional here, just a combination of staff and concerned adult.

Finally and this is waaaay into just my opinion, when one of the kids finally succumbs to a bug, there is a domino effect - if Janey is sidelined then the stigma is lifted for Johnny Joanie Jackie, and Georgie. (yeah, I know, but work with me).

At Madison in 1984 I carried 10+ Bridgemen brass players off the field as they passed out one after another. It was a viral thing - it came - it kicked the crap out of us - it went away. We scrubbed food trucks, buses, you name it, like an Operating room to try to stem the tide, and probably had some success, but man... when a virus hits kids that spend all night on a bus, then sleep next to one another on the floor of a gym, neither of which have any air circulation, it spreads fast.

I think that the idea that tours are badly maintained by corps (while possible in some isolated instance) is not quite dangerous, but borderline irresponsible. The adults that volunteer to do this are the best kind of zealots. They scrub, they cook, they do it all in a way that does credit to how hard the kids are working. I've never seen a volunteer go out on the road for the travel. These are workers of the best possible sort.

I'm happy to be wrong about any of this, but I have more than a few tours of observation from which to synthesize these thoughts.

Edited July 18, 2014 by rayfallon

[corps8294]

This happens around this time every summer to numerous drum corps. It's unfortunate; but it happens. It's nothing new. In '06 I was on staff with a corps that got a nasty bug right before San Antonio. The drumline went from 8 snares to 6, and there were a handful of members from the horn line out, too. The corps still went out, did its job, and popped a good score at the show.

On the positive, these "tour bugs" are usually short lived and the affected members are back on their feet and marching machines, again, after proper rest, food, and fluids.

[year1buick]

Considering the close quarters that everyone on tour is living in, I doubt it comes down to living in unsanitary squalor so much as the occasional slip up that just snowballs. Maybe somebody contagious uses the same cup a couple times at a drink spigot or someone on the food truck has an infection control lapse. (Forgetting to wash their hands, picking up something contaminated with gloves and forgetting to change them, etc.) The spark to a fire.

[2kidsindrumcorpsnomoney4me]

Trust me...I'm a scientist! (and I won't get into the climate change discussion!)

1) The kids don't wash their hands enough. This is most commonly how illness are spread.

2) There needs to be a daily (not weekly) bleaching of the water jugs. Kids drink straight from the spouts of their water jugs, putting the bacteria from their mouths on the spout. Then later, Janey asks Johnny to hand her the water jug. Johnny touches the spout as he hands it over - if it hasn't been bleached in 3 or 4 days, there are a s**t ton of bacteria on there. Combine this with #1, Johnny might get "the bug"

3) lack of sleep lowers resistance. I see the same thing with my college students at finals time. 1+2+3 combined with the perpetual close quarters, and it runs through the whole corps.

One of my kids is in a corps that does not allow water jugs, and as far as I know, there have been no epidemics through the corps. Not really sustainable, but you can't argue if it works!

[drummer5485]

This is why I'm glad we did the giant cooler/plastic cup thing at Cavaliers.

Of course we still got sick, that happens. Especially the 2 days our air conditioning was broken on our bus in 05.

[somerville]

When I marched a bunch of us could not keep anything down for 24 hours. It was not pleasant on a bus that didn't have a lou. Thank God for large buckets.