Ready to Survive a 90-day Quarantine?

Preparedness Pro blogged: Ready to Survive a 90-day Quarantine? It was quite an eye-opening article about the many ways people would need to be prepared in case of a 90 day quarantine, including scenarios we might not think of.

While I agree that everyone should try to be prepared for most foreseeable disasters, I had some questions and comments for her that ended up being too long. So Here's my long comment (and I'll link this blog post in her comments as a manual "trackback"):

Are there any recent or proposed protocols for quarantining various types of locations (big cities, ports, less-populated areas)? If so, are there different levels of whichever protocol might apply, such as: very contagious, but only lethal to young/old/immuno-suppressed; or mildy contagious, but more lethal across the board; or very contagious, and highly lethal D/T cytokine storm? <-I just made those up, perhaps there's already different levels with better names.

Anyway, hopefully there's some kind of realistic protocol based on our current population that considers the different levels of threats. The swine-flu threat took a bit too long before they tried to contain it IMO, even though it turned out not to be as lethal as it was first thought (like it was in Mexico). But once they actually closed some schools, some were closed for quite a while even after they realized the threat wasn't as bad as we feared (although I don't know each locations death rates, so the amount of time might have been justified).

Even if they just "wing it", making protocols up in real time, I'm guessing only certain areas of the country might be looking at the possibility of a full-blown quarantine lasting a full 90 days. Look at China during SARS -- it had a fairly high death rate, yet people still ventured out, albeit with masks and gloves.

But! Even if a partial quarantine happens in your area, don't be too lulled into thinking gloves and a mask will give 100% protection, even if it's an N95. When I first trained at the hospital, they spent extra time on new healthcare workers on wearing TB masks properly. She had a spray that smelled very sweet that she'd spray near the edges of our mask. If we could smell sweet, then we would have been exposed to TB. None of us new healthcare workers in our group got it right the first time!

Also, I'm pretty sure I caught rotovirus from a pedi patient! I had cared for, or assisted with IV, for many roto pedis, so it wasn't like I was inexperienced. But even though we tried very hard to always glove and wash our hands very good with roto patients, I had diarrhea the next morning. I helped hold the pedi during IV insertion, and it was difficult just like it always was with stout toddlers or kids. And I was gloved, but I got sick anyway. So despite training, certain situations will put people at risk (fighting, or not wearing masks properly), even with gloves or masks.

Boost immunity for Swine Flu? Not until more known about Swine Flue and Cytokines

Until it's determined whether Swine Flu causes cytonkine storm, no way will I give us Elderberry or Echinacea:

Swine flu and deaths in healthy adults--cytokine storm?
@ Aetiology by Tara C. Smith - an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology

If they do find cytokine storm with Swine Flu, I'll be following the following advice for "natural cures", since the author/s sourced the studies found at PubMed and NCBI for most of the "nature cures" listed (including the DON'T TAKES, where Elderberry and Echinacea fall under):

Natural Antivirals
@ The Health Gazette - blog owners "have decades of professional experience in multiple health disciplines, including nursing, psychology and natural medicine. We were also senior academics who spent almost 15 years teaching in Australian universities. We each have several degrees including PhD."

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And if you're confused as to whether the Swine Flu is airborne or droplet (no, they are not the same), don't feel alone. Apparently they're deciding to treat Swine Flu halfway between droplet and airborne protocols (read the article; it's too complicated to rewrite without writing a book).

All Swine Flu, All the Time
@ Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention - blog owners 1) Michael B. Edmond, MD, MPH, MPA is Professor of Internal Medicine, Epidemiology and Community Health, and 2) Daniel J. Diekema, M.D., M.S. Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pathology

Fomites cleaned; reclean after returning home

I try to regularly clean my home's fomites (frequently touched things), but until the Swine Flu 'pandemic' scare passes, I'll be doing it every time one of us returns home from public places, like shopping today, and when hubby comes home from work. Since hubby loses the hand cleanser plastic bottles I kept in the truck when I used it for work, I bought antimicrobial wipes. I really like how easy it is to clean little, twitchy things like:

• keyboard keys
• the mouse
• desk area in front of the pc
• remote control buttons
• light switches
• fan switches and pulleys

I also cleaned all doorknobs, faucets, and window-blind pulleys. I had already cleaned the truck's doorknobs and steering wheel when I finished shopping. Now if hubby washes his hands when he comes home from work, all I need to wipe will be the truck, front door knobs, and faucets of the sink he used. Comment if you think I forgot something. Hmm, I think I'll include his lunchbox, and put some wipes in a ziplock in the lunchbox too, since he shares eating quarters and bathrooms with numerous people that might be higher risk due to country of origin (I hope that was politically correct, and not too insulting).

I put the travel-pack of antimicrobial wipes in the truck, and am going to put some gloves and one N95 mask into a ziplock baggie for the truck too. I sure hope all of this turns out to be just paranoia. At least it took less time than it took to type this up 8^)

Prepping for hurricane season, and potential pandemic (panic)

This is about the time of year I do hurricane preps; I buy things we'll eat throughout the year, but shelf-stable instead of frozen. I also make sure we have enough cooking and lighting fuel, batteries, and water containers.

So after reading so many reports about a potential Swine Flu outbreak, epidemic, or pandemic, I figured I better get my yearly hurricane preps done now, otherwise the shelves will be emptied.

I bought a lot of canned meats and beans a few weeks ago. Today I bought some rechargeable batteries (AA and AAA), an LED lantern (20 bulbs) that recharges with AC or DC (we have an inverter we plug into the truck), and in-between shelf so I can store more cans without them being stacked on top of each other (why did they stop making cans stackable?)

I also bought more gloves, since hubby goes through them quickly, anti-microbial wipes in travel-pack as well as full sized so I can restock the travel pack (we already had a travel-pack, but hubby ripped the top open LOL). And I even found some N95 masks, 2 per box, for less than $3 USD/box. Hubby asked why I didn't just buy some HazMat suits; I answered that they weren't on sale LOL. I hope he'll always be able to laugh about his wife buying those, instead of having to use them like we saw from China's SAR's outbreak a few years back.

Other than the masks, everything I bought is either something we'd use during normal times (ok, not Spam, but I do have to hide the vienna sausages from him LOL), or something we'd use if hit by a hurricane. I filled up one gas tank, but the pump wanted to start over after it finished with one tank, and the car behind me had been waiting a while, so I dind't fill the other tank and gas cans like I planned. The gas card is still loaded, so we can use it for the other tank later.