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Quarantine and Isolation

One thing that we should all be considering is how we look after our health after an event. We need to make sure that we treat wounds well and keep ourselves healthy.

I’m not a medical expert but the one area I am concerned about is disease rather than physical damage. We can prepare and take precautions for diseases that we can pick up, we can treat our water, keep our work area clean, dispose of waste correctly and do everything right to control disease but with the absence of strong chemicals and sterilising equipment there are bound to be outbreaks of disease in our own community never mind those communities where they won’t be taking the precautions we are either through ignorance or simply because they do not have the capabilities.

So what do we do when someone in our group contracts an unknown illness? Procedure calls for isolation. Isolation is “to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those who are healthy.” We should therefore set up an Isolation Area somewhere where we can treat these people or at the very least keep them away from others.

This isn’t going to be easy. The disease may have been passed on before it was identified; at the very least whoever is attending the ill person has had significant contact probably enough to have caught the disease. However, the best we can do is to try and prevent more people becoming ill. I’ll be looking for some remote houses where we can move these people until the disease runs its course. Houses we can burn to the ground when we are finished if it works out to be a fatal disease.

So what about diseases being brought in by others from outside, no matter how careful you are some people will not have your resources or have control over an area and disease may be rife. So what should we do if someone visits our community? Procedure calls for Quarantine. Quarantine “is used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill.” Our Isolation Area can double as a Quarantine Area where we can place visitors we have concerns over, either people that are already ill or people that are from areas of concern.

Obviously we can wait until the disease has run its course for those that are ill but how long for those that are not? My reading seems to suggest 72 Hours is a reasonable time but nothing is certain and some people can be carriers, like Typhoid Mary, and would pass Quarantine then go on to spread disease through your community. Sometimes no matter what you do you lose. Nature tries to kill you every day.

The real question though is; how will you tend to these people? Those that are not too ill can tend to themselves, supply food and water and they can look after themselves. Those that can’t create an issue for us after an event. Currently medical people die from these diseases that they are treating but we cannot afford to lose a valuable medical resource from our community. Hospital staff have a poor sickness record. Of course it won’t be your choice as your medical resource will make that decision but unlike now they won’t be so easily replaced. In fact that medical resource could simply be you with a few years experience of treating people, and probably animals. Or someone related may decide to be the Florence Nightingale of your community.

Make sure you prepare then by having cleaning fluids like bleach, masks, gloves and other protective clothing put aside for this task. Remember that it isn’t going to be a one off. The clothing won’t protect from everything and eventually you will run out of many of these resources, particularly if you end up burning them. Then think about what you will do to decide to isolate people and more importantly when you decide to move people to isolation. How will you do it? Think about how you will handle first contact with new people and quarantine them if you need to.

Invisible killers like disease are rightfully feared and will certainly be after an event when common illnesses that are treated easily now will become killers again. Especially now that these disease, eradicated decades ago in the West are being reintroduced by immigrants.

8 comments to Quarantine and Isolation

  • Kenneth Eames

    SD, THank you for this. There isn’t any way that a Medic can avoid possible contamination. When you take up a career in medicine you should understand that there will be pitfalls along the way. One of the certainties is that you will have many colds and flu from people that you are going to treat. However, there are many more deaths in the building industry, farming, etc.. Medics are well down the list from these industries. Even in Third World countries, where the risks are greater, the death rates are lower than many other occupations. Kenneth Eames.

  • Skean Dhude

    That is fair enough for Medics but some of us will become the local medical expert and not be the caring type. Like me. I’ve learnt a lot about medical things and would happily learn more yet I am not going to risk myself for just anyone.

  • Highlander

    If there was any risk of an outside infection, and a visitor came calling, I would be very suspicious of anyone who wouldn’t voluntarily put him or herself into a quarantine.

    If such a person insisted in getting too close he or she would have to be forcibly kept out, there would be no option

    If the infection was already within our ranks, then you SD have probably covered all that we could do.

    As a help, we need to make sure our preps include masks/overalls/glues and as much disinfectant as we can save, and learn as much as we possibly can from both mainstream medicine and Herbal medicine

    I am no expert, but it is possible that such infections and diseases may only be around for a short time, when I say short time, I mean a couple of years, by that time our immune systems may be starting to get stronger, at the moment we are bombarded with pills and potions which has weakened us,.. those pills and potions will not be around for long

  • Kenneth Eames

    SD, I don’t beleive that you’re not the caring type and if a situation arises, I cannot see you abandoning your own kith and kin. H, the same applies to you and yours. For myself, all of the preppers on SUK are now my extended family, I, in all honesty could not abandon any of you. This has been my chosen path in life and thats why I have the Will to live on, in view of a terrible catastrophe engulfing the Planet. I do despair though, of the fact, that most members are so far away. Kenneth Eames.

  • Highlander

    I do see your point Ken, and I hope I do care .. but even if it were a group member or someone else you may know, you couldn’t possibly risk the lives of everyone in your group, for the sake of one,…and that one person should also know that they must be kept separated if they arrived with fever/cough or any other signs of infection

    Having someone in Isolation for 72 hours may well become the normal if a pandemic is in evidence,… you can always make the isolation area comfortable and they could have their own radio etc

    It would be the stranger who insisted he was clear and who wouldst obey an isolation order that would, and should worry a group,… something would have to be done about him, even if he was someone who was previously a member of SUK

  • Skean Dhude

    Ken,

    I did say I wouldn’t do it for just anyone. Of course I, as would most people, take more risks for family and friends.

    Many scenarios after an event have Doctors rushing off to remote communities to known hot spots to treat them. That is the difference between a Doctor and a local Medical expert. I have a scenario about this risk in the queue.

  • Kenneth Eames

    H and SD, I understand what you are both saying and I can understand that. However, as a herbalist and homoeopath, I would need to be seperate from the community because of course, I would be committed to saving lives. My mother done what she could throughout her life for other people and I feel the same. Unfortunately, in the Flu epidemic in the 30’s she was unable to save my father but she carried on with the work and saved the lives of several other people. If however, I should die from contact with a patient, be it so. I took a decision in my thirtieth year that any person needing my assistance would receive it. Kenneth Eames.

  • bigpaul

    any pandemic around here and we go into TOTAL isolation, the door dosent get opened to anyone until the crisis is over.