I did a brief search to see if this was already discussed and didn't see anything.

I am looking into what some people are doing in preperation to survive a posible pan (or epi)demic. What type of forthought can one take to keep themselves and the ones they love from catching or being attacked (physically) by a victim.

Walmart had 28 Days Later on sale and I picked it up. Not the best movie, but it raised a lot of questions for me. Aside knocking off posible zombies, how can one prevent the catching of a type of bacterial agent that mutates the human body (or even just kills the human).

it can happen any time ... but I think we will know if this thing is coming our way ...

Originally posted by Jkd Up


Walmart had 28 Days Later on sale and I picked it up. Not the best movie, but it raised a lot of questions for me. Aside knocking off posible zombies, how can one prevent the catching of a type of bacterial agent that mutates the human body (or even just kills the human).

Bacterial agents can be treated with broad spectrum antibiotics, some of us get them with a private script from a doctor, or bull# the suppliers of expedition supplies into selling you a range of antibiotics. others especially in the US follow Ragnar Bensons approach and obtain vetenarian antibiotics which according to his books in many cases are identical to human versions.

Its viral outbreaks that cause problems like influenza, ebola etc, and your only real defence is isolation, IE bug out and hunker down somewhere safe until the outbreak passes. You can fit rooms and retreats with home made filters to reduce the risk of airborn contamination.

Again I know I go on about how bad cities are for survivalists but having millions of people living in close proximity encourages epidemics, its another reason why serious survivalists wont like in cities.

Mhmm, antibiotics only work against bacteria.
If it's something that they have a vaccination for, and you think you can SAFELY get your hands on it, I suggest that (even though I know many ATSers are anti-vaccination.)

Smallpox, etc, there are vaccinations for and even though there are reactions to them, and side effects, it's probably worth it.

If it can be transmitted through fleas, you're pretty much stuck, since you don't need pets to get fleas in your house.

Plus, if it is spread before symptoms develop (long incubation time) and you go about your daily lives before people are aware that something happened, you're in big trouble, too.

These have all been great responses and I thank you all for your inpt!

My main concern would be a virus or bacteria that is not longer treatable with medicine. Obviously doctors and hospitals would (at this time) be about as unneeded as the obvios would proclaim.

Perhaps some thoughts on how to sniff out the eipidemic before it reaches epidemic proportions, maximizing survival abilities.

Originally posted by Jkd Up
These have all been great responses and I thank you all for your inpt!

My main concern would be a virus or bacteria that is not longer treatable with medicine. Obviously doctors and hospitals would (at this time) be about as unneeded as the obvios would proclaim.

Perhaps some thoughts on how to sniff out the eipidemic before it reaches epidemic proportions, maximizing survival abilities.

Stopping it before it spreads is outside the scope of any one person, family, or neighborhood. you would have to forcibly quarentine everyone from the sick area and prevent everyone from going in or our (perhaps one scenario in which temporary martial law is actually justified, if it as a virulant Ebola-type thing.) And that still might not work, depending on what kind of natural vectors you might have.

One thing that kills a lot of people in a pandemic is dehydration... many of the dead could have been saved with a simple IV. This is not practical or maybe even legal for most of us to keep, but it's a thought I thought I would throw out there.

What kills you is your bodies over reaction to the virus. You drown in your own immune response.

Tamiflu is based on the idea that you have to mute your bodies over reaction - they have extracted the shikimic (sp?) acid from Star Anise to create Tamiflu. Though the company itself claims that using star anise will not work for you as it is. I think I worked it out at one point and the amount of star anise used for one tamiflu pill was like 9-15 star anise.

(some families in the middle and far east use an "old's wives" recipe when they have a cold or flu. Frying up star anise, cayenne, and some other ingredients I cannot remember and they drink it with coffee.)

This is also why young healthy men died so fast of the 1910 one. Their healthy immune systems reacted so fast and so strong that they drown in their own fluids.

You can try not to catch it. Good idea. However, you are unlikely to KNOW that you have already caught if for 2 to 15 days depending on the incubation period of the virus. During that time, people will be walking around shedding the virus without symptoms.

That is a minor problem in the avoidance plan. Can't avoid what you don't know is there. Avoidance doesn't matter when you've already contracted it.

So, your real issue is likely to be management and survival of symptoms.

You and your family will likely not moving around for a while. You'll need easy access to all the drink and items you need.

If you have small children, you are going to need to think about how they are going to get themselves things to drink when they and YOU are probably incapacitated. Your small children are as likely to die of water starvation as anything else in this scenario.

I would suggest that if you have small children and infants that you plan for them to all be in one room with you. You aren't going to be walking too far. Hopefully you're infants are breatfed - because then you won't have to worry about storing a week of formula in that room and it not going bad.

As soon as you notice symptoms in you or others, I suggest you make sure that your children all have bottles of water around, in easy reach. Lots of them. That they can open themselves. That way if you are too weak to be able to open them, you aren't also dying with the knowledge that your children are going to die of thirst because Mommy/Daddy are too weak to help them.

Which brings me to another thought I've been tossing around. Making sure I have some sort of stimulant handy in case I need to be able to get up and move and stay awake for a while. Caffeine pills. Speed? Still mulling that one around.

You want to have ways to clear the mucuous/fluids out of your lungs. This is what will kill you first and fastest. There are other enzymes that are good anti-inflammatories as well.

I keep Serrapeptase and a inhaled steroid for this. We also happen to have an oxygen concentrator. I've been thinking about this, because my big lovely brute of a husband happens to have some bad lungs on him (wet asthma, OSA) and would NOT be a priority patient in the event of a pandemic. I'd like to keep him around for a while.

A nebulizer for treating secondary infections in the lungs. Nebulized c.silver or a water extract oil of oregano to combat those opportunistic bacterial infections.

I'm sure that there are other things to combat wet lungs so you don't drown when you cannot get to a hospital. I'd be happy to hear other people's ideas on it.

I happen to think that one of the pandemics (the black death) that hit the planet was everywhere, but that in Europe the Black Death was actually 2 different plagues happening at the same time. This would help account for the variety of it compared to all the other areas hit, and account for the selective genetic mutation that is only found in Europeans because of it. (the mutation that makes europeans have a 2-11% chance of being resistant to AIDS). What was different about the European plague? I think that it was the Black Death AND A hemoraghic fever at the same time. Or something very similar to a hemorraghic fever (flu A mutation...)

So, that brings you to the second possible survival scenario. This is a different scenario than the Spanish Flu. Serrpeptase and any other blood thinner would likely be a REALLY bad idea then. This is a virus that causes a multisystem failure. There doesn't appear to be any serious treatment for it in the medical lit. Though there does appear to be some companies with large mice and guinea pig survival rates using their drugs that (I think) disrupt the lipid formation of the virus.

So, assuming you or a family member already HAVE the virus before you realize that there is a problem (very likely), how do you plan on surviving?

I had another thought to add about water.

Water by itself might not be the best thing. An electrolyte mix for the water would be a good idea. You can buy gatorade powder, and other electrolyte drink mixes from your hiking/camping equipment store.

I used that electrolyte stuff in my platypus when I was on my cycling trips. I don't know whether it worked but I do know I didn't feel ill so I guess it did. Already have some for my BOB.

Aeons, that star anise thing. Would you crush them up and add it like tumeric or what? That stuff is pretty sharp. Incorrectly prepared it would be very painful going in...






and out!