OUTBREAK. PANDEMIC. Words that send chills down the backs of most sane people. Viral or bacterial outbreaks are a real worry to the prepper community. Even today when things are running as normal as possible a viral out break can and has been fatal. Every year the United States experiences various outbreaks of different viruses. 2015 we had a out break of Measles. The ground zero was Disney Land in California. But as much as this one made the news there was only 189 reported infected people. This pales in comparison to the outbreak of 2014 with 667 people. The majority came out of Ohio Amish communities. The main culprit, (Per the CDC) Unvaccinated Amish Children.
This weeks show is NOT about the pros or cons of vaccination. Lets get that straight.
Some of the biggest problems with outbreaks is not so much the virus causing all the hoopla, but the hoopla, or yes, the LACK of hoopla itself. Communication about viral outbreaks SUCKS in this country. Seriously. Donald Trump has Sarah Palin endorse him for president and that is all that is on the news. Oh and a snow storm in the east.
25 prisoners in Indiana develop rapid onset flu like symptoms 1 dies 1 is on a ventilator 4 are in ICU 14 in a Terra Haute hospital and the rest are in the prison hospital and its barely a flicker on the inter webs and a brief 10 seconds on Fox. Umm this is kind of important. Rapid onset flu like symptoms is a touch more important than what color bra Hillary Clinton is wearing. Does that mean that the country needs to grind to a halt? No. It does mean that people need to be watchful for it.
Our co host Cat spent a year researching her latest book Prepping for a Pandemic where some of thing items we are talking about she covers and gives advice on how to prepare cope and beat some of the viruses that can make it to pandemic proportions. Pick up your copy here. Prepping For a Pandemic by Cat Ellis
We pick on Canada. Our brothers and sisters to the north. They make it so EASY at times. (Not really Just pickin on ya!)
But since the beginning of the year CTV has published 4 stories on different potentially dangerous diseases that have or have the potential to emerge in Canada.
Scan the Internet and see what is the top health news in the US.
From Fox News
1. Zika Virus. (Good at least they are paying attention)
2 Baby born on the FDR in New York city.
3 The 7 worst (and 7 best) Chinese takeout dishes
And 4. A Dr asking why the CDC is dragging its feet on Zika and other viruses
The CTV had articles as such
1 Zika Virus
2 Teen smoking
3 Proper nutrition and exercise
4 . And on January 6th a rather in depth article on how the last antibiotic has fallen to the drug resistant bacteria.
If something is not bleeding it doesn’t lead. If it isn’t juicy gossip on a politician it is not posted. If the government thinks we don’t need to know, we don’t know.
Last year the talk was on Ebola. Then as it was brought under control (Personally I do not believe that) it fell off the news and the next big thing peaked. What wasn’t on the news, except in the areas it happened in was the relapse patients had that got over Ebola and months later they are sick or dying or even dead. The respiratory illness in Indiana. Seems important to me. But I may be wrong.
Leishmaniasis the lovely little skin eating bug that is common in the middle east is making an appearance in Europe. But the news organizations are more interested in the “mistreatment “ if immigrants in Finland than in the reporting of a organism that was imported to a country where it is not native.
The reporting of deadly or contagious viruses is important. But what if the “Grid” is down. Take this past weekend. The blizzard that crippled the eastern seaboard and north east. Power was out. Cell towers were out. Phone was out. No add in a “What If”. The bird flu in the Midwest poultry farms jumps the gap between avian and human. People are coming down with flu and are sick. CNN went off the air days ago do to no power. How do you let your people know that are holed up in the mountains that it is NOT safe to come down. Ham Radio. Ham or amateur radio has been around since Marconi made his first transmission. The VHF and UHF bands have good line of sight range. I use my little Baofeng $29.95 radio to talk with the Space Station on the times it is over New Mexico.
The disadvantage of VHF and UHF Radio is they are line of sight only. So that limits their range. To compensate the repeater networks are in place. The good thing is that 1 they mostly privately owned and 2 Most use solar panels to work. So what does this have to do with emergency medicine? A lot.
In the military we used something called a SALUTE report. This was used to report on activity in the area.
Breaking it down it goes
Size The size of the group you are observing.
Activity What is the group doing.
Location Where is the group you are observing at
Unit (Or Uniform) What are the wearing or can you tell who they are
Time Date and Time of the observation
Equipment What do they have.
This same item can be used to report sickness in your area. Communication is as vital to health care as is medicine. By communicating with others what is going in with a potential outbreak can help contain and pool resources to help kill the bug. Or at least let it run its course in isolation.
So join us this week on The Medic Shack as we tackle the spread containment isolation and reporting of contagious viruses
Sunday 6 pm PST 9 pm EST On the Survival Circle Radio Network
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