Have you ever assisted at a road accident? Waded into the sea to pull out a kid who was struggling in the waves? It's instinctive isn't it?
Sadly it's that very instinct that causes injury and sometimes death to hundreds of rescuers each year. Hundreds more find themselves in a situation that also requires rescue after realising out too late they cannot deal with the situation they are now part of.
It's very difficult to overcome the urge to rush to assist those in trouble particularly when time is of the essence. The last thing on your mind at a time such as that is how your children will cope without a father, who will look after everyone without a mother but as selfish as it seems, thinking these things can make you stop and think of the two most important things in a rescue situation. Firstly is it actually safe to attempt to execute a rescue? And secondly do you have the capabilities to do so?
Just to add to the problems there has been a spate of 'fake' accidents in the UK of late, situations set up to lure in unsuspecting rescuers who are then robbed, and worse if they fight back. This is not being publicised for fear of escalating the problem, putting ideas into the heads of those who wouldn't have thought about it previously. These incidents are usually conducted off the main track, in more isolated spaces, dimly lit side streets and generally in places less likely to be witnessed by a passerby. If someone is whimpering or asking for help from a dimly lit alley, or from behind a dumpster, or someone runs up to you telling you their friend needs help "over there" "behind those bushes" or anywhere else not in plain sight be aware that it might be a set up and act accordingly. Stay where you are, call the police and/or emergency services and wait for their arrival. If it is a genuine emergency you waving your arms about will attract them to the area far quicker than them having to find the casualty. If it was not a genuine emergency you go home unharmed. Win win.
With regard to genuine emergencies the first thing you do is get more help, always call for help. Even if the emergency services will not be there for a while and the situation is going down hill having others to assist lessens the risk to all involved.
Once you have effected the rescue, any rescue, and are in a safe place it's time for A B C. Airway. Breathing. Circulation. It is impossible, and would be irresponsible to attempt to teach this in a post on a blog. Get on a first aid course and get the hands on experience required to make you as successful as possible at using basic life support techniques.
WATER EMERGENCIES
Water resucue causes more rescuer deaths than any other. Try to get the victim out in any way you can that does not involve one rescuer going to their aid. Human chains can be formed, clothing can be pooled to form ropes if other people are around. Several people will be more able to assist a drowning man than you alone. A person in survival mode has tremendous strength that is fuelled by panic and blind terror. It is highly likely that unless they are very much smaller than you, or they are unconscious that their struggles will injure you, and in the case of water emergencies, they will grab whatever solid object they can, often the head and shoulders of a rescuer, taking that person under with them. If you just have to go into water to effect a rescue try to throw something to them, they will calm down almost immediately when they have something to hold and that something should be anything but you. If you have managed to get an object to them, pull them to shore using the object if at all possible, this keeps you at arms length. If you intend getting them to shore by physically grabbing them always approach from behind, swim on your side whilst pulling on their clothing at arms length. Always keep your head and shoulders out of grabbing reach. Once in a position of safety,
in a responsive victim reassure and make as comfortable as you can until help arrives in an unresponsive victim ABC.
ICE EMERGENCIES
It happens every year, people walk on ponds and lakes and fall through the ice. People die trying to rescue their dogs that have fallen through ice. We have all heard of these cases. If you stop and think, it is sensible to assume that if they have fallen through the ice is also unlikely to hold your weight. There is no safe way to walk or move across ice that has already been weakened by someone falling through it. Spreading your weight by lying down and wriggling across is safer than walking but if you get there without falling through hauling the victim out is another matter, the weight of both you and the casualty will more than likely plunge you both into the water leading to the pair of you needing rescuing. If you really do have to effect a rescue take off as many of your clothes as possible, by definition it will be cold, you will need dry clothing to put on afterwards. Crack the ice at the edge of the water, take a belt if you have it with you, if not, the most unessential item of clothing you have, a tee shirt maybe. Continue to break the ice making your way to the casualty. When you are close enough to them that the item you have will reach them hold onto one end and slide it across the ice between you and them. When they have it pull them towards you, the weakened ice will break. Doing it this way keeps you out of reach for as long as possible, getting you both into shallower water before contact is made. There is a likelihood you are both heading for hypothermia at this point. Dress your self in your dry clothes as quickly as possible. Run on the spot and move your arms in wide circles to encourage blood flow. Shivering is good as it generates heat, five times more heat than a non-shivering body. If the casualty is able encourage movement. You can cover the victim with your jacket, in the case of a child, wrap them as best you can in your thickest item of clothing, this prevents further heat loss. Once you are in position of safety in a conscious victim reassure and make as comfortable as possible intil help arrives in an unconscious victim ABC.
ELECROCUTION EMERGENCIES
If ever you come across a fisherman, or someone with a kite nearby who is unconscious DO NOT TOUCH THEM...LOOK UP. A fishing line or kite touching power lines and electrocuting the person on the other end is not uncommon. If the fishing rod or kite string is still in their hand and you touch them you will be electrocuted as the current moves from them to you. Electrocution causes the muscles of the hands to contract meaning the person cannot let go of the item they are holding so the electricity will course through them until the circuit is broken. It is advisable not to intervene in these cases as a small breeze can blow the sting or line onto you almost ensuring your death. It is unlikely the casualty has not survived the incident. If you are CERTAIN the casualty is no longer part of the circuit, that is the rod is lying some distance from them still approach with caution, electricity can arc over several feet, particularly if you are in or near water.
In indoor situations turn off the power at the mains. The person will topple over if they were in a sitting or upright position as their muscles relax when the electricity stops flowing. Look for any signs of liquid and if present stay even further away as water conducts electricity very effectively.
Lightening strikes on individuals also caused injury or death by electrocution and kill exactly the same way. By interfering with the electrical activity in the heart.
Static electricity can kill. There have been several cases of static electricity causing explosions at petrol stations as people fill their tanks. In hot dry weather the rubbing of you clothes on fabric seats builds up static. If this discharges near the vapour as you are filling the tank there will be an explosion and fire. Make it a habit to discharge static by touching the metal of the car before you fill the tank. Okay you get a bit of a tingle but it's better than dying of burns caused by a fireball. It affects women more than men and this is thought to be due to women wearing more man-made fibres than men, particularly underwear which is often synthetic.
You cannot afford to make a mistake with electricity, particularly out of doors when there is no possibility of turning off the supply. If the victim is conscious encourage them to move towards you rather than you moving towards them. If they are unconscious stay back and let the emergency services deal with it. Domestically, if you KNOW the mains supply is turned off, wait one minute for any residual current in the victim to dissipate to earth before approaching. Commence ABC.
These are just three examples of situations where rescuers often become victims, there are many, many more. The point is that you need to be situationally aware before attempting to carry out a rescue of any kind. Analyse what you see before taking anymore action than ringing the emergency services. Someone dying through a tragic accident is terrible, a rescuer and the original victim dying is a travesty.
Take care
Lizzie
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Could aid to Cuba lead to cholera in the US?
On July 13 th 2012 the Ana Cecellia docked in Havana, Cuba having sailed 16 hours from Miami, Florida. It was the first time an American ship had docked in Cuba for 50 years and was the start of what is hoped to be a regular service. It is being run by the transport firm International Port Corporation. The 300 foot ship was carrying humanitarian aid, medicines and personal hygiene products sent by families of Cubans living in the US and church relief groups.
Just five days earlier, on July 8th an unnamed person living in Havana was diagnosed with cholera. In the weeks preceding the Havana case three people died and many were sickened in the town of Manzanillo, Granma Province S.E. Cuba. The official government response to all the cases was that the victims had drank water from a contaminated well.
Manzanillo is some 470 miles from Havana.
The island of Haiti lies 398 miles off the southernmost tip of Cuba. In the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the country on January 12th 2010 a cholera epidemic broke out that up until May 2012 had killed over 7000 people. Cholera lives naturally in some shell fish, and can be passed to humans if the seafood is undercooked, but in the case of Haiti the source was said to be faecal contamination of the water supply. This was disputed by many Haitians who have accused aid workers of bringing it into the country with them.
Many hundreds of Health workers from Cuba have been working with cholera victims as well as those injured in the quake itself and it is logical to assume that some of them have taken the disease back to Cuba with them. Casual person to person contact is unlikely to spread cholera wholesale throughout a population but bad hand hygiene, particularly if those hands come into contact with food make spread more likely, as does something as simple as shaking a contaminated hand and then touching your own food or mouth allowing the bacteria to get into your system. Prior to the current cases the last outbreak of cholera in Cuba was immediately following the Revolution in 1959.
Vibrio Cholerae is a gram-negative bacteria that infects the small intestine. The bacteria flourishes in this environment and causes severe dehydration in its victims, so severe it often leads to death. Between 1 and 5 days after infection watery diarrhoea that has a fishy smell starts and within a few hours vomiting. This leads quickly to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Other signs of the disease, in no particular order are:
Low urine output
Excessive thirst
Glassy and/or sunken eyes
Lack of tear production
Dry mouth and mucous membranes
Lethargy
The confirmation of the disease is by blood culture or stool analysis and it is treated with antibiotics, usually tetracycline or doxycycline alongside rehydration therapy to rebalance electrolytes and encourage fluid retention.
On average there are six cases of cholera diagnosed each year in the United States and the majority of these have contracted the disease whilst travelling abroad. On Rare occasions a case presents where the cause of infection was from eating undercooked shellfish.
Should there be an uptick in the number of cholera cases presenting in the United States, and in particular if there is a cluster in the Florida area, or amongst the crew or the families of the crew of the Ana Ceceille it would not be too far fetched to consider that the Cuba connection may be responsible.
Take care
Lizzie
Just five days earlier, on July 8th an unnamed person living in Havana was diagnosed with cholera. In the weeks preceding the Havana case three people died and many were sickened in the town of Manzanillo, Granma Province S.E. Cuba. The official government response to all the cases was that the victims had drank water from a contaminated well.
Manzanillo is some 470 miles from Havana.
The island of Haiti lies 398 miles off the southernmost tip of Cuba. In the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the country on January 12th 2010 a cholera epidemic broke out that up until May 2012 had killed over 7000 people. Cholera lives naturally in some shell fish, and can be passed to humans if the seafood is undercooked, but in the case of Haiti the source was said to be faecal contamination of the water supply. This was disputed by many Haitians who have accused aid workers of bringing it into the country with them.
Many hundreds of Health workers from Cuba have been working with cholera victims as well as those injured in the quake itself and it is logical to assume that some of them have taken the disease back to Cuba with them. Casual person to person contact is unlikely to spread cholera wholesale throughout a population but bad hand hygiene, particularly if those hands come into contact with food make spread more likely, as does something as simple as shaking a contaminated hand and then touching your own food or mouth allowing the bacteria to get into your system. Prior to the current cases the last outbreak of cholera in Cuba was immediately following the Revolution in 1959.
Vibrio Cholerae is a gram-negative bacteria that infects the small intestine. The bacteria flourishes in this environment and causes severe dehydration in its victims, so severe it often leads to death. Between 1 and 5 days after infection watery diarrhoea that has a fishy smell starts and within a few hours vomiting. This leads quickly to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Other signs of the disease, in no particular order are:
Low urine output
Excessive thirst
Glassy and/or sunken eyes
Lack of tear production
Dry mouth and mucous membranes
Lethargy
The confirmation of the disease is by blood culture or stool analysis and it is treated with antibiotics, usually tetracycline or doxycycline alongside rehydration therapy to rebalance electrolytes and encourage fluid retention.
On average there are six cases of cholera diagnosed each year in the United States and the majority of these have contracted the disease whilst travelling abroad. On Rare occasions a case presents where the cause of infection was from eating undercooked shellfish.
Should there be an uptick in the number of cholera cases presenting in the United States, and in particular if there is a cluster in the Florida area, or amongst the crew or the families of the crew of the Ana Ceceille it would not be too far fetched to consider that the Cuba connection may be responsible.
Take care
Lizzie
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Post-collapse anaesthetics
Anaesthetics is a tricky business, monitoring the patients vital signs and maintaining their airway is a balancing act that requires knowledge of anatomy and physiology, as well as a huge amount of knowledge about the anaesthetic drugs available, and how they work in relation to muscle relaxants that are given to soften muscles allowing surgeons access without the twitching and reflex movements that would otherwise occur.
It would be stupid to think that post-collapse nobody is ever going to need an anaesthetic, of course they are, and for that reason knowing where the nearest doctor is, or better still having one in your group would be everyone's number one choice. Sadly, not everyone is going to know where a doctor is, and few will be fortunate enough to have one in their group.
This article is not about you doing brain surgery on the kitchen table, or digging bullets out of someone's gut when a hunting trip goes wrong. It is simply to inform you of the uses, mode of action and doses of ketamine.
Prior to 1963 Phencyclidine, PCP, was used as an anaesthetic agent. It was quite unpredictable and cause a majority of patients to awake with psychotic hallucinations after their operation. The drug was, like many, adapted to street use and was widely known as Angel Dust. In 1963 ketamine, which is chemically related to PCP was first synthesised. It has more reliable onset and duration times and although it can still cause hallucinations post-operatively they are far less severe. It is these properties that make it a desired street drug where it goes under various names such as Dorothy, special K, cat Valium, super acid and green, I am sure there are many more.
Ketamine is the only anaesthetic drug that has analgesic, hypnotic and amnesic effects. It produces feelings of disassociation with events and surroundings. It also maintains the muscle tone of the airway, elevates blood pressure and heart rate and has a predictable onset and duration time. These features make it an excellent battlefield medicine and it is carried by all service medics as part of their standard kit. When given in sub-anaesthetic doses it provides excellent analgesia, comparable to that of high dose morphine but without the respiratory depression and decreased heart rates associated with opioid analgesics.
It is often the case that a sub-anaesthetic dose of ketamine is sufficient to facilitate a minor procedure, such as removal of shallow foreign body, suturing, or approximating a non-compound fracture. It is excellent for use in dressings application or changes and is a strong enough analgesic that cleaning contaminated or necrotic wounds would be far more comfortable for the patient, and less harrowing for the medic carrying out the procedure.
Ketamine is packaged in a clear glass multi dose vial in strengths of either 50 or 100mg/kg and hospital grade ketamine is usually in liquid form though in some parts of the world it comes as a powder for reconstitution with sterile water. It can be given iv but many doctors favour the intramuscular route, and this should definitely be the route used by anyone who is not used to the drug as it provides a slower onset and longer duration of action.
In a hospital environment, with full back up anaesthetists would give a dose of between 5-10 mg/kg to induce anaesthesia, giving another 3-5mg/kg approximately every 20 minutes to maintain the anaesthesia.
Sub-anaesthetic doses of 3-5 mg/kg would be given every 15 minutes in order to provide good analgesia levels for lesser procedures. In both these cases, using the intramuscular route of administration the onset time would be 15-25 minutes.
As mentioned patients may experience hallucinations on waking from ketamine. There is some evidence that asking the patients to think of non-exciting things such as walking through a field of flowers, or watching a sunset, when coupled with a quiet area during their recovery from the drug reduces the hallucinations by a considerable degree. I have had only one patient that has hallucinated during their recovery out of many dozens of ketamine anaesthetics I have assisted with.
Ketamine is a very useful and versatile drug but is should not be used in patients who are known to have ischaemic heart disease as the increased heart rate caused by the drug can overload the heart and it is no use at all for removing foreign bodies from the eyes as it causes nystigmus, involuntary eye movements. It does cause an increase in salivation but this wears off quickly as the patient recovers. Care is always taken to make sure that the patients head is not in a position where the tongue could fall back and block the airway, and that secretions can drain freely.
The detail provided in this article is for information only and is not a suggestion or recommendation that anyone but qualified medical practitioners with full hospital back up should use ketamine for anaesthetic or analgesic purposes.
Take care
Lizzie
It would be stupid to think that post-collapse nobody is ever going to need an anaesthetic, of course they are, and for that reason knowing where the nearest doctor is, or better still having one in your group would be everyone's number one choice. Sadly, not everyone is going to know where a doctor is, and few will be fortunate enough to have one in their group.
This article is not about you doing brain surgery on the kitchen table, or digging bullets out of someone's gut when a hunting trip goes wrong. It is simply to inform you of the uses, mode of action and doses of ketamine.
Prior to 1963 Phencyclidine, PCP, was used as an anaesthetic agent. It was quite unpredictable and cause a majority of patients to awake with psychotic hallucinations after their operation. The drug was, like many, adapted to street use and was widely known as Angel Dust. In 1963 ketamine, which is chemically related to PCP was first synthesised. It has more reliable onset and duration times and although it can still cause hallucinations post-operatively they are far less severe. It is these properties that make it a desired street drug where it goes under various names such as Dorothy, special K, cat Valium, super acid and green, I am sure there are many more.
Ketamine is the only anaesthetic drug that has analgesic, hypnotic and amnesic effects. It produces feelings of disassociation with events and surroundings. It also maintains the muscle tone of the airway, elevates blood pressure and heart rate and has a predictable onset and duration time. These features make it an excellent battlefield medicine and it is carried by all service medics as part of their standard kit. When given in sub-anaesthetic doses it provides excellent analgesia, comparable to that of high dose morphine but without the respiratory depression and decreased heart rates associated with opioid analgesics.
It is often the case that a sub-anaesthetic dose of ketamine is sufficient to facilitate a minor procedure, such as removal of shallow foreign body, suturing, or approximating a non-compound fracture. It is excellent for use in dressings application or changes and is a strong enough analgesic that cleaning contaminated or necrotic wounds would be far more comfortable for the patient, and less harrowing for the medic carrying out the procedure.
Ketamine is packaged in a clear glass multi dose vial in strengths of either 50 or 100mg/kg and hospital grade ketamine is usually in liquid form though in some parts of the world it comes as a powder for reconstitution with sterile water. It can be given iv but many doctors favour the intramuscular route, and this should definitely be the route used by anyone who is not used to the drug as it provides a slower onset and longer duration of action.
In a hospital environment, with full back up anaesthetists would give a dose of between 5-10 mg/kg to induce anaesthesia, giving another 3-5mg/kg approximately every 20 minutes to maintain the anaesthesia.
Sub-anaesthetic doses of 3-5 mg/kg would be given every 15 minutes in order to provide good analgesia levels for lesser procedures. In both these cases, using the intramuscular route of administration the onset time would be 15-25 minutes.
As mentioned patients may experience hallucinations on waking from ketamine. There is some evidence that asking the patients to think of non-exciting things such as walking through a field of flowers, or watching a sunset, when coupled with a quiet area during their recovery from the drug reduces the hallucinations by a considerable degree. I have had only one patient that has hallucinated during their recovery out of many dozens of ketamine anaesthetics I have assisted with.
Ketamine is a very useful and versatile drug but is should not be used in patients who are known to have ischaemic heart disease as the increased heart rate caused by the drug can overload the heart and it is no use at all for removing foreign bodies from the eyes as it causes nystigmus, involuntary eye movements. It does cause an increase in salivation but this wears off quickly as the patient recovers. Care is always taken to make sure that the patients head is not in a position where the tongue could fall back and block the airway, and that secretions can drain freely.
The detail provided in this article is for information only and is not a suggestion or recommendation that anyone but qualified medical practitioners with full hospital back up should use ketamine for anaesthetic or analgesic purposes.
Take care
Lizzie
Body disposal post collapse
Several people have posed the question recently of what to do with corpses, of which there will be many, post-collapse. There are views ranging from leave them where they drop hoping animals will deal with them, to funeral services conducted by ...whoever, through to mass burials and cremation. There are circumstances that will most likely fit all of these solutions, but leaving a body where it is, particularly if it is in the vicinity of you and your family is in my opinion, the worst thing you could do.
Obviously if someone in your group passes over you will want to deal with them respectfully and in line with their religious beliefs. A six foot deep hole in the back garden, away from any water course is enough to satisfy the health and hygiene aspects of death. This should be carried out as soon as is practicable before breakdown and decay start to occur. If it is winter and the ground is frozen the body may have to be wrapped and stored outside until the ground is soft enough to dig.
What happens though if it is not a member of your group, and it is not one body but lots of bodies, what do you do then?
I am going to tell you what happens after death, you will see why leaving bodies where they are is not an option if you want to avoid not only disease, but an influx of animals and insects from bears down to flies.
Once death occurs degradation starts almost immediately and for bodies not taken away and dealt with by undertakers, morticians and coroners visible signs of decay can start in as little as 15 minutes after death if the conditions are warm and humid.
At the point of death the body starts to cool, within four hours the body will be at or close to the temperature of its surroundings. During this time the skin will have paled visibly and will be waxy looking. Postural lividity caused by blood pooling and coagulating in the lowest part of the body will have occurred so, someone lying face down will be discoloured, looking a purple/dark blue colour on the front of their body.
The muscles that control the bowel and the bladder will have lost their tonicity, they will be relaxed and moving the body will cause both to evacuate. Rigor Mortis, which literally translates as 'stiffness in death' will be complete at around the 12 hour point after death. The only way to change the position of the body once it has set in is to 'crack' the rigor, literally snapping the muscles to alter the position. Rigor will wear off over the next 18-24 hours but by then, if left the internal organs of the body have started to decay. Gases build up in the gut and intestines and are not passed out of the body as they were in life and this gives the corpse a swollen and bloated appearance. These gases cause the putrefication of the internal organs, turning them first to jelly and then to liquid which will escape from the body via the orifices. This foul smelling liquid will exit via the bowels, bladder, mouth,ears, nose and even the eyes.
This is an absolutely horrendous sight and the smell is something you will never, ever forget. The thought of having this play out with one body is bad, with lots of bodies it is unthinkable.
Animals and flies smell a corpse at a good distance and will come from miles around if attracted by the stench of many corpses. Dogs, cats, rats, birds and flies will all make their way to the site, to them it is a meal nothing more or less. This will of course dispose of the bodies, but you then have to deal with a plague of vermin, which carry many diseases in their own right as well as anything they may have picked up from the bodies, flies which are excellent disease carriers, as well as packs of dogs roaming around looking for their next meal. I won't even get into the problems that a bear or two could cause. So, what do you do?
I know there are options like burial at sea if you are right on the coast and may be sky burial, letting the vultures feed if you are high in the mountains, but for all practical purposes it really comes down to two options, burial or cremation.
Unless you have access to a mechanised digger, JCB, backhoe something like that digging mass graves is going to be hugely labour intensive and is going to require a fair chunk of land, particularly if it is going to be an ongoing situation. If the cause of the deaths is illness, for example in a pandemic situation that is so bad the government is not collecting the bodies burial could be dangerous as some pathogens are perfectly able to live on in the soil for a considerable amount of time. In a situation where animals are starving there is a possibility that bodies could be dug up. It is not a viable option if the ground is frozen meaning the bodies will have to stored until the ground thaws. Once again ths will attract animals that have no problem eating frozen meat.
Open cremation is still practiced in many cultures. It is far less labour intensive and has the advantage that germs and disease are destroyed. As people across the world who have used fire to destroy evidence of crimes have found, bodies do not burn that well.
In order to cremate a body you need high heat and good airflow for a considerable amount of time. To achieve this there will ideally be some kind of platform for the bodies to rest on with the fire built underneath this, and then combustible material placed on and around the bodies. If a reusable platform can be built all the better. Piles of bricks or rubble criss-crossed with metal posts or beams, or a metal bed frame would be one way of saving precious fuel, a pyre for multiple bodies is going to take a great deal of it. Regardless of how you construct your pyre the bodies need to be well off the ground or they will not combust effectively, there has to be good airflow all around to get anywhere near complete combustion.
A variation of the Dakota fire pit, whilst more labour intensive than a simple pyre will save very considerably on the amount of fuel used, and it is re-usable, an important consideration if the cremation is likely not going to be a one off.
| small Dakota fire pit |
Whichever method you use stand down wind. The smell of burning flesh is not pleasant and there can be particulate matter in the air that is harmful. Bodies that are cremated move and contract, giving them what pathologists call 'the pugilistic pose' the legs bend at the knees and the arms come up, fists clenches as if taking up a boxing stance. This is normal, but is often accompanied by popping sounds as the muscles contract in the heat. Depending on the amount of gases built up in the bodies there is a risk that some may explode, the same with skulls that are exposed to extreme heat.
 |
| typical pugilistic pose |
ALWAYS handle bodies whilst wearing protective gear, this may be nothing more than rubber boots, mask, gloves and safety goggles but it is important to protect yourself at all times. Disposable painters coveralls with the boots, mask, goggles and gloves would be a safer option. All abrasions, cuts and scratches should be covered before handling the dead.
This is not a pleasant subject, but if as we believe some kind of societal collapse is going to occur it is something we need to think about, and as always, plan for.
Take care
Lizzie
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Is social distancing a feasible way to avoid contagion?
In short the answer is yes. Having said that it is not quite as straightforward as you might think.
Durning pandemics or epidemics, which are localised disease outbreaks, our not so esteemed leaders will most likely start by issuing advisories to avoid large gatherings of people, baseball games, football matches that sort of thing. The next step is closures of such venues, games will be cancelled to limit the spread of the disease. One up from this is the closure of large institutions, such as college campuses. This is followed by the temporary closure of schools, and other public buildings such as council offices, job centres and libraries, and finally cinemas and even churches may be closed. Airlines may cancel flights or flights into and out of affected areas may be banned by government order to contain an outbreak.
The final imposed restriction is curfew. Individuals will not be allowed to move around freely in order to limit the spread of the disease. This decision will not be taken lightly by governments...unless they are thinking Agenda 21 and seize the chance to reduce the population by a few million. Enforced curfew means that many of those who have not prepared are gong to die, either of dehydration and starvation, or by bullet when they break the curfew in their hunt for supplies. In view of the estimated amounts of unprepared people out there, security forces would in my opinion, be so overwhelmed by the numbers of those breaking the curfew they would not have the option of rounding them up, many will die.
As an individual, you may have already decided not to send your child to school, you may have already driven across the state or even the country to get an older child home from college. You are, if you are reading this, probably well stocked and good to go if you decide to stay away from everyone until the situation improves. How long do you need to stay holed up for? When will it be safe to leave your home? What precautions do you take on returning if you really have to go out?
There can be no rule of thumb for how long you need to stay isolated for, but if any of you think a month will do it you need to think again. Although diseases spread at different rates, have different incubation times and are infectious at different times during their course they all rely on one thing. A supply of suitable hosts.
The supply of hosts, in this case us, is known as the herd, and providing the herd is big enough the disease will keep spreading. If the herd is too small, the disease will die out, this is the basis of shutting down sporting fixtures and campuses, reducing the size of the herd.
Microbiologists, as a baseline figure assume that one infected person will go on to infect 20 others. Some diseases such as Hansen's disease (leprosy) although contagious, has a much lower infection rate than this, other diseases such as pandemic influenza, are much higher. 20 is considered a mean average. So one teacher can infect 20 kids. Each of those 20 kids can infect 20 more people, that makes 400 each of those 400 can infect 20 people, that makes 8000. Disease spreads very quickly, and if you have something with a short incubation period, you have thousands of infected people around at the same time. The problem is, so many of the worst diseases start off resembling the common cold, fever, aches, sore throat, headache. If presenting during the winter 'flu season' it can go un-noticed for even longer. By the time it is realised it is more that just a regular bug doing the rounds the situation is well on its way to being out of control, it will keep spreading as long as there is people for it to spread to.
How long you should remain isolated depends primarily on where you live. For those in towns and cities it will be for much longer than those living in rural retreats where human contact is minimal. Though those fortunate enough to live in such surroundings should remember that if the situation is dire enough, people will leave the cities looking for safety in less populated areas. In large centres of population there will be more people moving around, legally or otherwise, each of these individuals represents a possible uptick in the disease rates, allowing the spread to continue longer than it would had they stayed indoors and/or out of circulation. Even when the initial phase is on the wane, or has passed through an area, people travelling into that area can bring it back with them triggering a second wave of disease as people are now emerging from their isolation.
On finding out there may be a major event in the offing, that people were becoming sickened I would dissect the information I had and find out as much as I could about the condition. This would not take more than an hour or two.
On finding it is a definite threat I would go shopping....make sure that any holes in my preps are as far as I am able filled. I would be looking for the usual, easy cook long life foods and bottled water, lots of bottled water. If systems break down due to staff sickness or death other diseases may spring up and so many are waterborne I would store as much as I could. Waste collections may be affected, thick rubbish bags, and several more gallons of bleach to keep the outside areas of the home free from pathogens delivered by rats etc who will be attracted by mountains of garbage would be a priority.
A couple of pairs of disposable decorators coveralls, disposable gloves and a filtered face masks would be next. If I had to go out these would be discarded before re-entering my home.
Fly spray or fly papers should be on every preppers list but most of us severly underestimate the amount we will need. Any crisis that causes rubbish to build will see a massive increase in their numbers, they are also effective germ carriers and spreaders and should be viewed as a threat to your general good health. Although they may not be capable of carrying the disease that is causing the crisis secondary illnesses often occur in such situations.
The idea of shopping at this point is to preserve my stored preps for the maximum amount of time. Pandemics and diseases go in waves, often returning several times before the crisis is finally over. After the first wave has passed, there is no guarantee that life will operate as it did before. Depending on the mortality rate of the disease the population may have thinned considerably, the food chain could well be affected and municipal services may well have stopped or be severly reduced. The last minute shopping trip could well be the last time you are able to supply yourself with what you need.
I would continue these trips, gathering as many extra supplies as I could until I heard of the first case within one hundred miles of my home. At that point self-imposed isolation comes into effect. One hundred miles is my buffer zone for disease, of course it could already be in my city, but practicalities dictate that I will not stay away from people because hundreds in Europe are dropping like flies. Maps of disease spread look like a locust swarm moving across the country and this allows disease spread to be tracked on an hour by hour basis. One of the few instances where mainstream media will be useful.
Once the doors were locked we would stay there for at least two weeks after the last case within 100 miles is reported. A government all clear would be weighed against how long it had been since the last case was reported in the area I have designated as my buffer zone. There is of course still the chance that someone from outside the area will bring the disease in with them causing a second wave of illness. You cannot seal off cities to prevent this. Going out after self-imposed isolation should be kept to a minimum for as long as possible, and if you don't have to, then don't do it. Far better to let those that are comfortable being out and about get on with it and see if any new cases emerge before exposing yourself and your family to that possibility.
As with most things we prepare for there is and will continue to be massive uncertainty during times of crisis. Diseases can be unpredictable and are capable of mutating at an alarming rate. New emerging diseases, and re-emerging diseases are often zoonoses, that is diseases that jump the species barrier fom animal to human and these unfortunately can be the most unpredictable of all.
The continental United States has seen unprecedented heat in many areas of late, drought conditions prevail in many areas. Animals will migrate in search of water, as humans have done for millennia. Bubonic plague is present in many animals in the Sierra Nevada area, hantavirus greatly favours dry conditions. West Nile virus and other mosquito spread disease is on the increase. The UK has over the last five weeks seen numerous floods, rodents are on the march, looking for drier, higher ground. They bring with them a massively increased risk of leptospirosis. Cholera is now not only a problem in Haiti, but in Cuba, having reached Havanna earlier this week. Cuba to the closest point of Key West is 90.5 miles...inside my buffer zone limit though admittedly the ocean makes spread less likely than if they were joined by land and the cholera is not yet epidemic let alone pandemic.
Pandemics have occurred before and they will happen again. Localised epidemics are quite common. A little thought as to how you would deal with not only the contagion but the other issues that could arise from it may well save you a great deal of grief in the long term. No crisis remains isolated, each and every one of them will have a knock on effect, you may survive the pandemic, but what about the three months worth of rubbish in the streets, the plague of rats and the thousands of unburied bodies left in its wake?
Think ahead and have a plan, and as I have learned from so many preppers, have a back up plan.
Take care
Lizzie
Durning pandemics or epidemics, which are localised disease outbreaks, our not so esteemed leaders will most likely start by issuing advisories to avoid large gatherings of people, baseball games, football matches that sort of thing. The next step is closures of such venues, games will be cancelled to limit the spread of the disease. One up from this is the closure of large institutions, such as college campuses. This is followed by the temporary closure of schools, and other public buildings such as council offices, job centres and libraries, and finally cinemas and even churches may be closed. Airlines may cancel flights or flights into and out of affected areas may be banned by government order to contain an outbreak.
The final imposed restriction is curfew. Individuals will not be allowed to move around freely in order to limit the spread of the disease. This decision will not be taken lightly by governments...unless they are thinking Agenda 21 and seize the chance to reduce the population by a few million. Enforced curfew means that many of those who have not prepared are gong to die, either of dehydration and starvation, or by bullet when they break the curfew in their hunt for supplies. In view of the estimated amounts of unprepared people out there, security forces would in my opinion, be so overwhelmed by the numbers of those breaking the curfew they would not have the option of rounding them up, many will die.
As an individual, you may have already decided not to send your child to school, you may have already driven across the state or even the country to get an older child home from college. You are, if you are reading this, probably well stocked and good to go if you decide to stay away from everyone until the situation improves. How long do you need to stay holed up for? When will it be safe to leave your home? What precautions do you take on returning if you really have to go out?
There can be no rule of thumb for how long you need to stay isolated for, but if any of you think a month will do it you need to think again. Although diseases spread at different rates, have different incubation times and are infectious at different times during their course they all rely on one thing. A supply of suitable hosts.
The supply of hosts, in this case us, is known as the herd, and providing the herd is big enough the disease will keep spreading. If the herd is too small, the disease will die out, this is the basis of shutting down sporting fixtures and campuses, reducing the size of the herd.
Microbiologists, as a baseline figure assume that one infected person will go on to infect 20 others. Some diseases such as Hansen's disease (leprosy) although contagious, has a much lower infection rate than this, other diseases such as pandemic influenza, are much higher. 20 is considered a mean average. So one teacher can infect 20 kids. Each of those 20 kids can infect 20 more people, that makes 400 each of those 400 can infect 20 people, that makes 8000. Disease spreads very quickly, and if you have something with a short incubation period, you have thousands of infected people around at the same time. The problem is, so many of the worst diseases start off resembling the common cold, fever, aches, sore throat, headache. If presenting during the winter 'flu season' it can go un-noticed for even longer. By the time it is realised it is more that just a regular bug doing the rounds the situation is well on its way to being out of control, it will keep spreading as long as there is people for it to spread to.
How long you should remain isolated depends primarily on where you live. For those in towns and cities it will be for much longer than those living in rural retreats where human contact is minimal. Though those fortunate enough to live in such surroundings should remember that if the situation is dire enough, people will leave the cities looking for safety in less populated areas. In large centres of population there will be more people moving around, legally or otherwise, each of these individuals represents a possible uptick in the disease rates, allowing the spread to continue longer than it would had they stayed indoors and/or out of circulation. Even when the initial phase is on the wane, or has passed through an area, people travelling into that area can bring it back with them triggering a second wave of disease as people are now emerging from their isolation.
On finding out there may be a major event in the offing, that people were becoming sickened I would dissect the information I had and find out as much as I could about the condition. This would not take more than an hour or two.
On finding it is a definite threat I would go shopping....make sure that any holes in my preps are as far as I am able filled. I would be looking for the usual, easy cook long life foods and bottled water, lots of bottled water. If systems break down due to staff sickness or death other diseases may spring up and so many are waterborne I would store as much as I could. Waste collections may be affected, thick rubbish bags, and several more gallons of bleach to keep the outside areas of the home free from pathogens delivered by rats etc who will be attracted by mountains of garbage would be a priority.
A couple of pairs of disposable decorators coveralls, disposable gloves and a filtered face masks would be next. If I had to go out these would be discarded before re-entering my home.
Fly spray or fly papers should be on every preppers list but most of us severly underestimate the amount we will need. Any crisis that causes rubbish to build will see a massive increase in their numbers, they are also effective germ carriers and spreaders and should be viewed as a threat to your general good health. Although they may not be capable of carrying the disease that is causing the crisis secondary illnesses often occur in such situations.
The idea of shopping at this point is to preserve my stored preps for the maximum amount of time. Pandemics and diseases go in waves, often returning several times before the crisis is finally over. After the first wave has passed, there is no guarantee that life will operate as it did before. Depending on the mortality rate of the disease the population may have thinned considerably, the food chain could well be affected and municipal services may well have stopped or be severly reduced. The last minute shopping trip could well be the last time you are able to supply yourself with what you need.
I would continue these trips, gathering as many extra supplies as I could until I heard of the first case within one hundred miles of my home. At that point self-imposed isolation comes into effect. One hundred miles is my buffer zone for disease, of course it could already be in my city, but practicalities dictate that I will not stay away from people because hundreds in Europe are dropping like flies. Maps of disease spread look like a locust swarm moving across the country and this allows disease spread to be tracked on an hour by hour basis. One of the few instances where mainstream media will be useful.
Once the doors were locked we would stay there for at least two weeks after the last case within 100 miles is reported. A government all clear would be weighed against how long it had been since the last case was reported in the area I have designated as my buffer zone. There is of course still the chance that someone from outside the area will bring the disease in with them causing a second wave of illness. You cannot seal off cities to prevent this. Going out after self-imposed isolation should be kept to a minimum for as long as possible, and if you don't have to, then don't do it. Far better to let those that are comfortable being out and about get on with it and see if any new cases emerge before exposing yourself and your family to that possibility.
As with most things we prepare for there is and will continue to be massive uncertainty during times of crisis. Diseases can be unpredictable and are capable of mutating at an alarming rate. New emerging diseases, and re-emerging diseases are often zoonoses, that is diseases that jump the species barrier fom animal to human and these unfortunately can be the most unpredictable of all.
The continental United States has seen unprecedented heat in many areas of late, drought conditions prevail in many areas. Animals will migrate in search of water, as humans have done for millennia. Bubonic plague is present in many animals in the Sierra Nevada area, hantavirus greatly favours dry conditions. West Nile virus and other mosquito spread disease is on the increase. The UK has over the last five weeks seen numerous floods, rodents are on the march, looking for drier, higher ground. They bring with them a massively increased risk of leptospirosis. Cholera is now not only a problem in Haiti, but in Cuba, having reached Havanna earlier this week. Cuba to the closest point of Key West is 90.5 miles...inside my buffer zone limit though admittedly the ocean makes spread less likely than if they were joined by land and the cholera is not yet epidemic let alone pandemic.
Pandemics have occurred before and they will happen again. Localised epidemics are quite common. A little thought as to how you would deal with not only the contagion but the other issues that could arise from it may well save you a great deal of grief in the long term. No crisis remains isolated, each and every one of them will have a knock on effect, you may survive the pandemic, but what about the three months worth of rubbish in the streets, the plague of rats and the thousands of unburied bodies left in its wake?
Think ahead and have a plan, and as I have learned from so many preppers, have a back up plan.
Take care
Lizzie
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Post collapse who's your biggest enemy?
I have had a hectic time of late. House hunting in a more rural location a couple of hundred miles away is challenging. Nobody is buying houses, I can't sell mine so I am going to rent it out and rent a place in a better location, but there's a but. Most landlords will not accept dogs, some won't accept kids, and I have one of each that will be moving with me. I have just finished this year at university and am sorting courses for next year, I am waiting for the inquest into my mothers death, and the result of that could re-open the criminal case bringing those responsible to account legally for their actions.
The household chores have slipped as a result of all this, things have not been done, I can't find paperwork when need it it, I am tired and stressed and when I am tired and stressed I do not function properly. I am naturally a very orderly person, I have a place for everything and usually, everything is in its place. I like the way my life chugs along, I like not having to rush around cleaning up if visitors give little notice of their arrival, I like saying "middle draw, left hand side at the front" when my child asks where the glue sticks are.
With the job I do I think well on my feet, I can improvise and manage with what I have, I have dealt with car accidents with nothing more than a car first aid kit, dealt with a shooting with a tea towel and numerous other incidents over the years where hospital equipment was not available in the first instance. Why then can I not cope with a full laundry basket? Why does a knife in the spoon section of the cutlery draw drive me mad? And why does the thought of wearing unironed clothes give me a nervous twitch?
I have spent 30 odd years dealing with situations that by their nature are untidy, multiple car pile ups can be very messy. Patients bleed, puke and excrete all over the place and I don't turn a hair. Babies arriving in car parks throws my back pack full of emergency kit into complete disarray and I am fine about it, okay, relatively fine about it. I deal with the clean the unclean and the positively filthy, the sick, the not so sick, the walking wounded and the dead and dying. I am told I carry out these duties well yet my dog throws up and I throw up cleaning it up. The rabbit died and I had to get one of the dads from school to come and move poor Snowy bunny, I couldn't touch him. Dismembered people fine, a dead rabbit not fine.
I am I have decided, a contradiction in terms. I will also, when the shtf be my own worst enemy. I am assuming of course that a collapse will not be neat and tidy, that I may not be able to keep my home the way I like it. The world going to hell I will cope with, my space becoming disorganised chaos well, that I am not so sure about. This of course is a major hole in my preps, state of mind is a major issue in any survival situation. Regardless of what I have in the pantry it will not get me through if my mind is so pre-occupied with what are essentially banalities that I miss what is going on around me.
In a collapse situation we all need to be able to focus on what is important. I am hoping that when the collapse happens I will function as well as I usually do in a crisis. I hope I will apply myself, think clearly and act confidently in the face of adversity, but I cannot be sure that I will if I am mithering about the rug in the lounge not been vacuumed for two days. I need to get over this and fast.
Recognising our faults and weaknesses can highlight problems we had not previously considered. It can give us a chance to work on it, change our mindset to one that's more conducive to the situation we will find ourselves in. I will admit outright that at this point in time I cannot kill an animal, I also acknowledge that I have never been hungry enough to have to consider it and I have no idea if that will change when I am that hungry, there's a good chance it might.
Be honest with yourself about your capabilities. Seriously think about your mind set, and how to change it if like me you identify shortcomings that could reduce your edge in a survival situation. As with all things related to prepping the time to sort out issues is before the event, not after.
Take care
The household chores have slipped as a result of all this, things have not been done, I can't find paperwork when need it it, I am tired and stressed and when I am tired and stressed I do not function properly. I am naturally a very orderly person, I have a place for everything and usually, everything is in its place. I like the way my life chugs along, I like not having to rush around cleaning up if visitors give little notice of their arrival, I like saying "middle draw, left hand side at the front" when my child asks where the glue sticks are.
With the job I do I think well on my feet, I can improvise and manage with what I have, I have dealt with car accidents with nothing more than a car first aid kit, dealt with a shooting with a tea towel and numerous other incidents over the years where hospital equipment was not available in the first instance. Why then can I not cope with a full laundry basket? Why does a knife in the spoon section of the cutlery draw drive me mad? And why does the thought of wearing unironed clothes give me a nervous twitch?
I have spent 30 odd years dealing with situations that by their nature are untidy, multiple car pile ups can be very messy. Patients bleed, puke and excrete all over the place and I don't turn a hair. Babies arriving in car parks throws my back pack full of emergency kit into complete disarray and I am fine about it, okay, relatively fine about it. I deal with the clean the unclean and the positively filthy, the sick, the not so sick, the walking wounded and the dead and dying. I am told I carry out these duties well yet my dog throws up and I throw up cleaning it up. The rabbit died and I had to get one of the dads from school to come and move poor Snowy bunny, I couldn't touch him. Dismembered people fine, a dead rabbit not fine.
I am I have decided, a contradiction in terms. I will also, when the shtf be my own worst enemy. I am assuming of course that a collapse will not be neat and tidy, that I may not be able to keep my home the way I like it. The world going to hell I will cope with, my space becoming disorganised chaos well, that I am not so sure about. This of course is a major hole in my preps, state of mind is a major issue in any survival situation. Regardless of what I have in the pantry it will not get me through if my mind is so pre-occupied with what are essentially banalities that I miss what is going on around me.
In a collapse situation we all need to be able to focus on what is important. I am hoping that when the collapse happens I will function as well as I usually do in a crisis. I hope I will apply myself, think clearly and act confidently in the face of adversity, but I cannot be sure that I will if I am mithering about the rug in the lounge not been vacuumed for two days. I need to get over this and fast.
Recognising our faults and weaknesses can highlight problems we had not previously considered. It can give us a chance to work on it, change our mindset to one that's more conducive to the situation we will find ourselves in. I will admit outright that at this point in time I cannot kill an animal, I also acknowledge that I have never been hungry enough to have to consider it and I have no idea if that will change when I am that hungry, there's a good chance it might.
Be honest with yourself about your capabilities. Seriously think about your mind set, and how to change it if like me you identify shortcomings that could reduce your edge in a survival situation. As with all things related to prepping the time to sort out issues is before the event, not after.
Take care
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
A cautionary tale
Mary and John are experienced hikers in their mid 50's. They carry well packed kit in framed backpacks and have dealt with several emergencies over the years, often related to other, less prepared hikers. They have travelled extensively in the United States and had visited Algonquin in Canada on numerous occasions, backpacked across a chunk of Australia and know the moors and lakes of Britain as well as they know their own back garden.
John, unlike his wife disliked changing his kit, he was happy with what he knew and saw no reason to change anything unless it was so worn it could no longer be used. This was the case with his boots a little over a year ago, knowing they would not last much longer, he brought a new pair, his favourite brand, complained bitterly about the price but went home relatively happy that they were very similar to his old pair. As he always did he wore them around the house and garden, walking around the local park and so on before wearing them for a proper hike. The boots were comfortable and didn't rub or irritate so he was happy, and Mary was happy that the old pair could finally be disposed of.
It was Johns birthday in April and his grown up children brought him bits and pieces that they knew he would appreciate, his eldest brought him some new socks to go with his new boots, two pairs of woollen ones and two pairs of cotton and bamboo mix for warmer weather. John wasn't at all sure about this, he had always worn woollen socks regardless of the weather. In May we had the only warm weather we have had this year, Mary and John went up to the Lake district for a few days, he decided to give the cotton socks a go as they were only going to be out a few hours.
Within half in hour John knew he didn't like the cotton socks, they kept slipping down and his boots felt looser than usual and he preferred a snug fit. The hike went off without incident and they returned to their bed and breakfast, cleaned up and went to the local pub for an evening meal. John felt a bit of an irritation on his right ankle and later found a small red patch just above his ankle bone. They set off the next day, with john in his woollen socks, but returned early as his ankle was sore. The area was hot and very red and sore to the touch.
John went to the Doctor on returning home, the doctor diagnosed cellulitis and prescribed antibiotics. Johns ankle got worse and the went back to the doctor. He was by now feeling generally unwell and feverish. The doctor referred him to the hospital right away, giving him a letter to take with him. He was seen immediately. Blood tests revealed he was infected with Staphylococcus Aureus in the form that is known as MRSA, Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus.
Doctors have confirmed that the infection started in Johns ankle, there has been some tissue damage from the abscess that formed there. This will have to heal by granulation, the slow growth of new skin that will eventually cover the defect. It will be along job.
The only thing that was different for John on this hike, was his socks. There was no sign of any bites or stings and no contamination with anything could be found. The medical conclusion was that Johns boot, which was looser than usual had rubbed just enough to allow the staph to get not his system, it can be carried on skin, and in the nasal passages of a good proportion of the
population so it may have come from John himself.
I have posted this as an example of how the simplest thing can turn into a crisis. Regardless of how experienced we are at a given task.
If you make any changes at all to your kit, pay a great deal of attention to how it feels, how it moves with you. If there is any sign of irritation, chaffing, rubbing or blistering stop and apply basic first aid until you can rectify the problem.
Your skin is the biggest organ of your body. It is a one way membrane that protects us from thousands of pathogens that would otherwise gain access to our inner body. Taking care of you skin is sensible at the best of times. Taking care of your skin post collapse is vital to your health and well being.
Abrasions, nicks, cuts, scratches...anything that breaks your skin should be dealt with promptly. The area should be cleaned with antiseptic or a mild salt solution and then covered to prevent germ transit and infection.
Monday, 2 July 2012
Food for thought
Okay, you've scrimped and saved, stocked up your pantry instead of taking holidays, done everything you should have done to protect you and your family/group from starvation. Now the time is here, it has hit the fan, the shops are empty, power is down and you have no idea how long before it comes back. The cause may be known to you, it may not. Anything from EMP to economic collapse, earthquake to pandemic, there is no way we can know, and this is what makes us nervous for the most part. We know something is going to happen, we each have opinions, but we have no definitive indicators at this point what and when.
For those who have a rural location and are practised at living off grid life will continue pretty much as it did prior to the event. For the rest of us life will change beyond recognition. Anything that changes our world to such an extent can rightly be termed TEOTWAWKI,on either a personal or societal level. So, assuming you have not been murdered in your beds by a band of roving, foaming at the mouth zombies, you need to get down to actually deciding how you are going to make what you have last for the maximum amount of time. This is going to be far from easy. Your food supply will run out eventually and if plan A misfires before plan B is up and running you have what will probably be a death inducing problem.
As with most preparedness issues, planning for something before it happens, when you are calm and thinking straight is far better than planning on the fly when the reverse could well be true. Looking at your bulging pantry may make you feel better now, but just what's in there? How many meals do you actually have? Do you know what goes with what or are you planning just to pull out what you fancy that day? Whilst I agree that a little of what you fancy is a great moral booster eating like that day to day will see your stocks diminish far faster than had you planned at least some of your meals. Plain boiled rice will stop you from starving to death but you will not be well after eating nothing but that for a month. Pulling the 'nice' stuff from the pantry will result in the bland and the boring getting left behind and ultimately, as your supplies dwindle these items are what you will be left with.
In addition, you need to have a basic idea of the calories required for good health of the people within the group. If you are going to be doing more of the manual work you will need more calories, and more protein for the health and strength of your muscles. No matter that cousin Bob has always been a big eater, if he is not doing the labour to warrant extra calories, his rations are reduced. Aunt Jane hates what is on the table? Tough, unless she is allergic to the contents it is what's served or hunger, her choice. Catering for differences in taste will see your supplies run out quicker than water down a drain. Meals should be generic and should supply a balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fibre. Additions such as rice and pasta pad out the available proteins, uses the more bland foods as part of a flavoursome meal and prevents you being left with 50lbs of rice and nothing else. Serving the meals directly onto plates instead of having a pot in the middle of the table also helps to make sure everyone gets their share. The server knows who does what within the group and serves the portions accordingly, this prevents those who are greedy depriving the rest of the group. It is unwise to assume that everyone will act honourably, they won't.
There are a couple of cheap, easy things you can do to make your meals go further. Soya protein swells up, and takes on the taste of the food it is mixed with, you can get it cheaply, even the organic version. A handful or two of this put into any mixed foods, such as soup or stew, ground beef meals or patties or even canned tomato sauce will make the food go further and give otherwise filling but protein short meals a boost.
Chia seeds have a similar effect, but are very expensive in the UK so I have not tried them out myself. They turn into a gel like substance, that when mixed with food cannot be tasted but again bulk up the meal making it go further. They are also vitamin rich, a major plus when most foods will be in short supply.
This may not go down well, but I will not be donating food to individuals or groups post shtf. This is not because I am being nasty in any way, just that I do not feel it is prudent to advertise that I have food to spare. Post collapse nobody except immediate and trusted family will have access to my home or my supplies, and even family will not be allowed to go into my stores or allocate food. I have been telling them for an age to stock up, they have not listened. Should they arrive, it will be done my way or no way. There will be no compromise.
We are all going to be facing a very different reality in the future, as part of a growing number of preppers we are well aware of this, but even within our survival groups, family or other wise, there are going to be issues relating to food and it's distribution within the group. As with all things related to preparation it is wise to have a plan before you need it. We associate food under normal circumstances, as an enjoyable commodity, something we share with friends and loved ones. When selecting foods to turn into meals for our families we look for flavours, and colours, vitamin rich and protein packed. Although we know we need food to survive, we don't think of this every time we sit down at the table. In the future we will. Our mindsets will change and they will change fast, they will have to if we are to survive. I have started to experiment with food far more lately, nothing drastic, but padding out what I have with cheap plentiful ingredients like soya protein, dried noodles etc to see just how far I can make what used to be one evening meal for 2 go. I have started to dehydrate whole meals such as chilli because I can't afford the freeze dried food available from the large companies. I am trying to think logically but outside of the box in order to get the maximum from what I have, my child's future depends on me getting it right.
Take care
Lizzie
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