Emergency Preparedness: Medical and Hygiene
Welcome to Part III of our Emergency Preparedness topic. We have given you an Introduction to Emergency Preparedness and we looked at Food and Water. Now we are covering medical and hygiene preparations.
Medical
After a disaster, an untreated cut can lead to infection and death. An untreated broken bone can also result in death or improper healing. Exposure to higher levels of bacteria without proper sanitation can result in sickness or death.
Depending upon the disaster’s extent, medical services, even medications, may not be available to you for an indeterminate amount of time. The need for medical attention can be immediate, as in the early moments during and after a disaster, or it can be more long-term, as in a cracked tooth that happens a week or more after the disaster. The first requires knowledge of first-aid treatments. The latter requires more extensive knowledge and tools. Think of it as first aid being the emergency, quick fix to get you through until relief arrives, while long-term medical care is the routine maintenance you will need to get you through an extended grid-down situation. In this way of thinking, it’s obvious that you need a little skill and knowledge with each.
You may not need dental care right now, but sometime in the future, you will. You might not be sick now, but sometime in the future, you will be. The second aspect of the medical category is criticalness. A broken bone, laceration, contusion, or concussion needs immediate attention. A scratch, bump or bruise you may have to endure until things are calmer but realize that these can rise to a more critical nature if left unattended.
The basis of all medical prepping is knowledge and a first-aid kit. A store-bought kit is a starting point. You should know how to use everything in that kit, and you should know what you need to get in your medical bag as well. Often, first-aid kits use cheap ingredients. Upgrade your kit to better bandages, band-aids/plasters, and gauze.
Consider adding a snakebite kit, suture kit, or Epipen if those are realistic to your assessed needs. If you have latex allergies, the latex gloves in a standard kit won’t do you much good. What medical supplies or medicines can you not live without? Do you have bad allergies? Do you take daily medicine? Do you have unique needs to maintain your health? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you want to ensure your emergency kit addresses these individual needs. Then do the same for every member of your family, again including your pets.
Beyond the equipment and medicine, you will need for both the short and long term, you will need medical reference materials. After a disaster, you won’t be able to look anything up online. A basic medical manual will be helpful if not a lifesaver. I cannot recommend the Survival Medicine Handbook enough. This is a well-thought-out medical handbook specifically designed for the preparedness community.
Hygiene
Hygiene is the conditions or practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, primarily through cleanliness. Most of us only think of it in the personal sense of bathing, brushing our teeth, and combing our hair, and it’s much more than that after a disaster.
You will still need a way to remove solid and liquid waste away from your home if the toilets ever stop working. You’re not going to want to pour water into your toilet to flush it if you only have so much water to drink.
Prepping supplies of toilet paper, wipes, plastic garbage bags, durable plastic gloves, bleach, face masks, eye protection, and the like are vital. Soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and those day-to-day sundries are also just as important. You want to keep clean and protect yourself from exposure to contaminants that could make you sick.
