in vinculis etiam audax (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} misia) wrote,@ 2006-01-09 07:11:00 |
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Here and there, a handful of folks whose journals I read regularly have begun to worry about the possibility of pandemic influenza. Certainly the news media have been doing their part to encourage this, documenting every last jot and tiddle of each and every H5N1 infection around the world.
For my part, I don't listen to too much that the news says about it. Instead, I do research. Because influenza epidemics can be deadly serious and hell if I'm going to sit still and get my medical information from the news media, honestly.
First of all, a few things that people should know about zoonoses and don't: a zoonosis is any disease that human beings contract from animal contact. That's all. They're revoltingly common. There are hundreds of thousands of cases of zoonoses in the US every year. Don't get your knickers in a wad because someone uses a word you don't know, like "zoonosis," and it sounds scary. Just know what it is, and know that as a phenomenon, zoonosis itself is really very common and very much not something to get excited about.
For example, a list of things you can catch from your cat (or at least that people have been documented as having caught from domestic house cat contact)! Whee!
* Afipia felis
* Anthrax
* Bartonella (Rochalimaea) henselae
* Bergeyella (Weeksella) zoohelcum
* Brucella suis
* Campylobacteriosis
* Capnocytophaga canimorsus
* CDC group NO-1
* Chlamydia psittaci (feline strain)
* Cowpox
* Cutaneous larva migrans
* Dermatophytosis
* Dipylidium caninum
* Leptospirosis
* Neisseria canis
* Pasteurella multocida
* Plague
* Poxvirus
* Q-fever
* Rabies
* Rickettsia felis
* Salmonellosis
* Scabies
* Sporothrix schenckii
* Trichinosis
* Toxoplasmosis
* Visceral larva migrans
* Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
So. With that out of the way, here's what I have found to be relevant information about dealing with virulent type A influenza viruses such as H5N1 -- the ones that have a propensity to cause epidemics.
Getting a flu shot will help reduce your risk of getting other types of flu. It will not reduce your risk of contracting H5N1, because the standard flu shot is not a vaccine for H5N1 (for the simple reason that there isn't a human-to-human transmissible form of H5N1 for which a vaccine could be created, at this point). But a flu shot can help keep you from getting regular old run-of-the-mill flu strains, which helps keep you more generally healthy. Also, a flu shot could help keep you from getting infected by a second influenza strain on top of H5N1 if you did happen to contract H5N1. So you might want to get a flu shot.
Don't bother spending the money to buy in-home influenza testing kits. They're expensive as hell, must be administered/performed correctly, and frankly, I don't know how good at performing such a test I would personally be if I were down for the count with fever and chills. In any event, the only thing they're really going to tell you is whether the viral strain is A-type (the most likely to be virulent) or C-type (a less virulent virus). My advice? If you've got the flu or think you might, try not to expose other people to it at all, which will render the question of virulence less important.
To that end, common courtesy and a little common sense will help you reduce both your propensity to expose other people to flu viruses (and any others you may be carrying around with you) and to be exposed to the viruses other people are carrying around.
So what do you do if you get sick anyway? Well, hopefully you've planned ahead a little and built yourself a nice little flu kit so that you can treat yourself adequately in the comfort of your own home, with your own bed and blankies and CD collection and those nice soft fluffy comforting kittycats (who hopefully haven't managed to give you any of the diseases listed above, sweet little moggies).
A flu kit is going to be a little more extensive than what one might want to lay in for an average case of the flu. The idea here is that if there should be a genuine flu epidemic, hospitals are going to be overwhelmed pretty quickly with a) people who didn't prepare, b) people who got sick and are panicking, and c) people who have complications and are genuinely in need of hospital care.
Anyway. Flu kit. What you want to have in your flu kit are ample supplies, for each person in your household, of
1. pain and fever reducer of your choice -- ibuprofen is generally well-tolerated, while aspirin is more likely to cause stomach upset
2. decongestant (pseudoephedrine-based)
3. antihistamine (like Bendadryl -- in case you get some whacked-out allergic reaction while your immune system is in a tizzy)
4. cough suppressant
5. cough expectorant
6. long-keeping juices, clear soups/consommes
7. easily-digestible, easily-prepared, long-keeping staple foods (you'd be surprised how good Cream of Rice can taste)
8. bottled water
9. a basic clean-up kit for infectious spills/vomit, etc.: bleach, a few sponges, some small plastic bin liners, a roll or two of paper towels, and a small bucket (in fact, everything may fit inside the bucket, how convenient!)
10. plain old table salt (to mix with water to help keep your electrolytes up)
11. plain old table sugar (see above)
12. vitamin C in some readily-available form -- a jar of chewable vitamins is fine (see above)
13. some extra boxes of tissues
14. some extra rolls of toilet paper / loo paper / bog roll
15. a thermometer that you know how to use and read -- one that you can't is not going to be so useful to you. (Wee digital thermometers are easy to find, btw., and no mercury and glass waiting to break and so on.)
16. a ballpoint pen and a small notebook, for keeping track of vital signs and symptoms in case you need the reference
17. backup/reserve supplies of any medications you take on a regular basis, on the theory that you may be too ill to get to a pharmacy to get a refill when you need one; a great many disaster preparedness folks generally recommend that people keep a one-month backup supply of meds around anyway Just In Case
18. stomach-settlers of your choice: if you like Rolaids or Pepto-Bismol, great, but you might also think about things like dried peppermint (peppermint tea), candied or dried ginger, and dried catnip (catnip tea)
19. rubbing alcohol and gauze pads or cotton balls/cotton wool -- can be useful in reducing fevers
20. a copy of the Merck Manual of Medical Information (Home Edition) -- one of the single most useful books any household can own, can help you know the difference between, say, "just a cough" and pneumonia
21. a copy of Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook -- an unbelievably useful basic diagnosis, treatment, and prevention handbook for common health care issues
Stick it all in a box or a milk crate or something and put it in a closet somewhere in the general vicinity of your bathroom/bedroom -- NOT in some dank corner of your basement or something, where it'll be hard and taxing to find it when you're not feeling well.
And there you go. It's not a cure. But it will set you up to take pretty darn good care of yourself if the shit hits the fan, and, God willing, to survive even a really nasty virulent flu so that you can help take care of other people.
In fact, while you're stocking your flu kit -- and remember that this is something you can do over the course of several weeks, just adding a few extra things to your shopping list each time, rather than needing to be something that happens all at once -- you might consider stocking a few EXTRA flu kits and keeping them in your home. If the shit really hits the fan with a major pandemic, having some extra supplies around is never going to be a bad thing.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of zoonoses? Don't forget to stock up on pet supplies. If you're too sick to get out of bed, you're going to be too sick to schlep to PetSmart for kitty litter or whatever it is. Get an extra case of cat food/dog food in cans and shove it in a closet or cupboard, and some backup kitty litter, and toss in an extra case or two (or more as needed) of bottled water for the furry members of your household. It might come in handy.
So don't fret too much. Just, y'know, think ahead.
For my part, I don't listen to too much that the news says about it. Instead, I do research. Because influenza epidemics can be deadly serious and hell if I'm going to sit still and get my medical information from the news media, honestly.
First of all, a few things that people should know about zoonoses and don't: a zoonosis is any disease that human beings contract from animal contact. That's all. They're revoltingly common. There are hundreds of thousands of cases of zoonoses in the US every year. Don't get your knickers in a wad because someone uses a word you don't know, like "zoonosis," and it sounds scary. Just know what it is, and know that as a phenomenon, zoonosis itself is really very common and very much not something to get excited about.
For example, a list of things you can catch from your cat (or at least that people have been documented as having caught from domestic house cat contact)! Whee!
* Afipia felis
* Anthrax
* Bartonella (Rochalimaea) henselae
* Bergeyella (Weeksella) zoohelcum
* Brucella suis
* Campylobacteriosis
* Capnocytophaga canimorsus
* CDC group NO-1
* Chlamydia psittaci (feline strain)
* Cowpox
* Cutaneous larva migrans
* Dermatophytosis
* Dipylidium caninum
* Leptospirosis
* Neisseria canis
* Pasteurella multocida
* Plague
* Poxvirus
* Q-fever
* Rabies
* Rickettsia felis
* Salmonellosis
* Scabies
* Sporothrix schenckii
* Trichinosis
* Toxoplasmosis
* Visceral larva migrans
* Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
So. With that out of the way, here's what I have found to be relevant information about dealing with virulent type A influenza viruses such as H5N1 -- the ones that have a propensity to cause epidemics.
Getting a flu shot will help reduce your risk of getting other types of flu. It will not reduce your risk of contracting H5N1, because the standard flu shot is not a vaccine for H5N1 (for the simple reason that there isn't a human-to-human transmissible form of H5N1 for which a vaccine could be created, at this point). But a flu shot can help keep you from getting regular old run-of-the-mill flu strains, which helps keep you more generally healthy. Also, a flu shot could help keep you from getting infected by a second influenza strain on top of H5N1 if you did happen to contract H5N1. So you might want to get a flu shot.
Don't bother spending the money to buy in-home influenza testing kits. They're expensive as hell, must be administered/performed correctly, and frankly, I don't know how good at performing such a test I would personally be if I were down for the count with fever and chills. In any event, the only thing they're really going to tell you is whether the viral strain is A-type (the most likely to be virulent) or C-type (a less virulent virus). My advice? If you've got the flu or think you might, try not to expose other people to it at all, which will render the question of virulence less important.
To that end, common courtesy and a little common sense will help you reduce both your propensity to expose other people to flu viruses (and any others you may be carrying around with you) and to be exposed to the viruses other people are carrying around.
-- cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, preferably with a tissue in-hand that can be thrown away
-- wash your hands. Early and often is the key. Carrying around a little bottle of hand sanitizer goo isn't a bad idea either, especially if you use public transit, public bathrooms, take public elevators/staircases where you're likely to be putting your hands in places where folks have just touched their faces are likely to put their hands, etc.
-- (edited to add, thanks to a commenter who mentioned it -- I should've thought to add it) If you have occasion to handle a dead bird, use gloves/plastic bags and dispose of the gloves afterward; consider strongly using a shovel or sticks or other things so that you can keep your distance, since you do not necessarily know what the animal died of or what it might be carrying.
-- wear a face mask when you're out in public or on public transit, especially if you're feeling particularly twitchy about flu risk or have a crapped-out immune system or both. It's no panacaea, but it can help keep you from inhaling other folks' microdroplets, which is no bad thing.
--and here's the kicker, folks: if you get sick, STAY HOME. I know, I know, there are a jillion reasons that people don't like to do this, but really, quarantine is one of the best ways not to give whatever you've got to other people.
So what do you do if you get sick anyway? Well, hopefully you've planned ahead a little and built yourself a nice little flu kit so that you can treat yourself adequately in the comfort of your own home, with your own bed and blankies and CD collection and those nice soft fluffy comforting kittycats (who hopefully haven't managed to give you any of the diseases listed above, sweet little moggies).
A flu kit is going to be a little more extensive than what one might want to lay in for an average case of the flu. The idea here is that if there should be a genuine flu epidemic, hospitals are going to be overwhelmed pretty quickly with a) people who didn't prepare, b) people who got sick and are panicking, and c) people who have complications and are genuinely in need of hospital care.
NOTE: Influenza is a viral infection. Generally speaking, there isn't much a doctor can do to make it go away. Antibiotics will not help. Antivirals *can* help but how much help they can be is a subject of some debate. They won't keep you from getting sick, though they can lessen the duration and severity of a viral infection. Additionally, just as some microbes become antibiotic-resistant, viruses adapt to become antiviral-resistant; some strains of avian influenzas are already known to be resistant to antivirals. (How the "Intelligent Design" people reconcile this with the supposed nonexistence of evolution I do not know, but I bet the Flying Spaghetti Monster does.) Influenza generally can be treated at home, even quite bad cases, with about the same kinds of forces that could be brought to bear on it in a hospital. There are exceptions to this, but not as many as you might think.
Anyway. Flu kit. What you want to have in your flu kit are ample supplies, for each person in your household, of
1. pain and fever reducer of your choice -- ibuprofen is generally well-tolerated, while aspirin is more likely to cause stomach upset
2. decongestant (pseudoephedrine-based)
3. antihistamine (like Bendadryl -- in case you get some whacked-out allergic reaction while your immune system is in a tizzy)
4. cough suppressant
5. cough expectorant
6. long-keeping juices, clear soups/consommes
7. easily-digestible, easily-prepared, long-keeping staple foods (you'd be surprised how good Cream of Rice can taste)
8. bottled water
9. a basic clean-up kit for infectious spills/vomit, etc.: bleach, a few sponges, some small plastic bin liners, a roll or two of paper towels, and a small bucket (in fact, everything may fit inside the bucket, how convenient!)
10. plain old table salt (to mix with water to help keep your electrolytes up)
11. plain old table sugar (see above)
12. vitamin C in some readily-available form -- a jar of chewable vitamins is fine (see above)
13. some extra boxes of tissues
14. some extra rolls of toilet paper / loo paper / bog roll
15. a thermometer that you know how to use and read -- one that you can't is not going to be so useful to you. (Wee digital thermometers are easy to find, btw., and no mercury and glass waiting to break and so on.)
16. a ballpoint pen and a small notebook, for keeping track of vital signs and symptoms in case you need the reference
17. backup/reserve supplies of any medications you take on a regular basis, on the theory that you may be too ill to get to a pharmacy to get a refill when you need one; a great many disaster preparedness folks generally recommend that people keep a one-month backup supply of meds around anyway Just In Case
18. stomach-settlers of your choice: if you like Rolaids or Pepto-Bismol, great, but you might also think about things like dried peppermint (peppermint tea), candied or dried ginger, and dried catnip (catnip tea)
19. rubbing alcohol and gauze pads or cotton balls/cotton wool -- can be useful in reducing fevers
20. a copy of the Merck Manual of Medical Information (Home Edition) -- one of the single most useful books any household can own, can help you know the difference between, say, "just a cough" and pneumonia
21. a copy of Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook -- an unbelievably useful basic diagnosis, treatment, and prevention handbook for common health care issues
Stick it all in a box or a milk crate or something and put it in a closet somewhere in the general vicinity of your bathroom/bedroom -- NOT in some dank corner of your basement or something, where it'll be hard and taxing to find it when you're not feeling well.
And there you go. It's not a cure. But it will set you up to take pretty darn good care of yourself if the shit hits the fan, and, God willing, to survive even a really nasty virulent flu so that you can help take care of other people.
In fact, while you're stocking your flu kit -- and remember that this is something you can do over the course of several weeks, just adding a few extra things to your shopping list each time, rather than needing to be something that happens all at once -- you might consider stocking a few EXTRA flu kits and keeping them in your home. If the shit really hits the fan with a major pandemic, having some extra supplies around is never going to be a bad thing.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of zoonoses? Don't forget to stock up on pet supplies. If you're too sick to get out of bed, you're going to be too sick to schlep to PetSmart for kitty litter or whatever it is. Get an extra case of cat food/dog food in cans and shove it in a closet or cupboard, and some backup kitty litter, and toss in an extra case or two (or more as needed) of bottled water for the furry members of your household. It might come in handy.
So don't fret too much. Just, y'know, think ahead.
