Posted on 07/30/2014 1:49:50 PM PDT by Kartographer
Your Strategy
doctor and patient with masks
You’ll need both standard and N95 masks as part of your medical supplies. I would recommend a significant number of each as the masks will be contaminated once worn and should be discarded. A simple truth regarding medical supplies in a pandemic: You can never have too many. Any “extras” you might have will be incredibly valuable barter items in times of trouble.
There are no absolute standards with regards to who wears what in the sick room. I would recommend using the standard surgical masks for those who are ill, to prevent droplets from coughing or sneezing (which can send air droplets several feet) and the N95 masks for the caregivers. In this fashion, you will give maximum protection to the medical personnel.
Remember, your highest priority is to protect yourself and the healthy members of your group. Plan out a sick room area and isolate those that might be contagious. Have plenty of masks, as well as gloves, aprons, eyewear, and antiseptics, and pay careful attention to every aspect of hygiene. Your survival may depend on it.
(Excerpt) Read more at doomandbloom.net ...
Preppers’ PING!!
There is speculation among many that the Ebola strain has already left Africa. I laugh out loud every time someone says this conspiratorially and ask if they have considered the probability that west Africans, probably infected, had attended the recent World Cup event in Brazil and that they would not have shown any signs of being sick during the 21 day incubation period. I remind these same people that this strain of Ebola is contagious during that incubation period, just the same. I usually receive horrified stares as a reward. Has it left Africa, you think?!
I have some surplus NBC gear I obtained from a swap meet a while back that includes a set of M17 gas masks with new filters. I’m hoping I don’t have to break out any of that stuff... not ever.
I hadn’t even thought about the world cup! The slums of Brazil are a prefect breeding ground if it made it over.
N95 masks are roughly $1 each in the 20 pack at the local hardware store. I wouldn’t throw them away though, not in a SHTF situation in which no more can be obtained. I’d expose then to sunlight for several hours on each side, set aside used ones for a month or more in a dry location, and then use them again once I ran out of new ones. New is far better than used, but used is far better than none.
Just remember the mask won’t be adequate to protect yourself. Its not just through breathing.
If you can heat them to 60 deg C (140 F) for 60 minutes it would sterilize them adequately for ebola.
Can you help me with that?
That's a very, very big deal.
This recent outbreak of Ebola has not followed normal epidemiological patterns for the disease.
The pattern of the current out break is of multiple simultaneous larger scale outbreaks in high population density areas.
One possible explanation is that the disease is being intentionally spread to create the outbreaks.
Bleach with my store of Calcium Hypochlorite I can make an ocean of it!!
For instance on the dash of a parked car, for most people, and anywhere in the car for many of us, during summer.
I have to keep my electronics in a ice chest in the trunk, to try to keep them below 140.
Another reason I've seen posted here is that prior outbreaks were in lesser-populated and more remote areas where the infected had little opportunity to infect others before they died, and the disease burned itself out.
With the current outbreak occurring in more populated/not-so-remote areas, the ability for the disease to spread is much greater.
The CDC is not specific, but lists symptoms as showing anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure, with 8 to 10 days being average.
Link: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/index.html
They say nothing about when it actually becomes infectious.
If you really want to go all out, Tyvek suits are disposable and HEPA masks will filter best, be sure to decontaminate them. And remember the filters will be contaminated so tape over the filter opening, then remove them before deconing the mask body. How effective are iodophor or quaternary disinfectants on Ebola? Personal decon may be needed and 10% bleach solution is rather tuff on the skin.
I have boxes of n95’s....
In my car, briefcase, backpack, storage and of course at home....
The only problem with masks, and it really isn’t specifically a mask issue, is that the wearer needs to have an incredibly clear understanding of safe technique.
How to safely remove a contaminated mask and contaminated clothing are as important as wearing everything in the first place. You have to be scrupulous in following safety recommendations in this regard.
If you don’t know what you are doing when you remove your gear, you can easily contaminate yourself and others.
Where do you get “concentrated bleach of 10% sodium hypochlorite”? That is obviously not the everyday grocery store variety. Thanks.
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