Tuesday when I reported the news I put this at the bottom of the news page from the CDC. After further information has come out I wanted to do an “oped” on what we can do to prepare ourselves and our family’s to keep us safe, or at the very least to make us all aware of the current situation.
Many of us tend to think of the flu as something we only get in the winter months. When we are indoors more and don’t open our doors and windows as much, well nothing could be further from the truth. This virus is deadly with a kill rate of up to 50%.
We need to get prepared to take care of ourselves and our family’s NOW before the panic starts and there will be shortages of supplies like the ones I am going to suggest. Will this prevent this H7N9? No, sadly it wont but it may help us to prevent it from spending if we do come in contact with someone who has it.
What you need to Know Via CDC web site
It was revealed late this week by researchers at the University of Hong Kong that the H7N9 bird flu virus which has infected 131 people (and killed 36) can be transmitted not only by close contact but by airborne exposure.
Their study, published this week in the journal Science, indicates ferrets were passing the virus cage to cage. Additionally, inoculated ferrets were infected before the appearance of most clinical symptoms, demonstrating there may be more cases than have been detected or reported.
Additionally, tests were conducted using pigs, a major host of influenza viruses. These tests also definitively showed that they could also get infected with H7N9, leading to the belief that H7N9 may combine with pig viruses to generate new variants. A particularly important, though unreported aspect of the entire H7N9 topic is that severe cases are reported to be hemmoraghic. What this means is that those infected could experience, among a myriad of other symptoms, excessive internal bleeding, liver or kidney failure similar to dengue, tick-borne encephalitis, and Ebola.
Readers are reminded that while reported infection numbers are still relatively low, H7N9 clearly has world health authorities seriously spooked. So much so, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC this week published a 1 BILLION dollar cost plus Federal Solicitation for the purposes of emergency experimentation with H7N9 Flu vaccines and emergency experimental antiviral treatments.
The Solicitation specifically references “preparation for a possible large scale national H7N9 influenza vaccination program.”
Further still, the CDC is considering using the two oil-in-water emulsion adjuvants in its stockpile with an H7N9 vaccine in order to increase effectiveness. Of particular note here is that the CDC has never before allowed the use of adjuvants in either the seasonal or pandemic influenza vaccines as their use has been tied to onset of Narcolepsy, as was the case with their H1N1 vaccine.
And something you can be assured of is that if a nationwide H7N9 vaccination program is implemented, this will no doubt be made mandatory for school-aged children given the close proximity of students in a school setting.
Supplies for Combatting This Pandemic
1. Medical Grade Skin Cleaner – In theory flu viruses can be transmitted 3 ways: Air, body fluids and direct contact. One of the best things we can do is to wash our hands and often. One thing that hospitals use is Chlorhexidine Gluconate, or HIBICLENS (brand name) This is used as a surgical scrub, health care personnel also use it for hand cleaning and a per-operative skin prep as well as a skin wound cleaner. The cleaner bonds to the skin to help create a persistent antimicrobial effect. It can be purchased from Amazon at the following link or you may can find it other places. Hibiclens Liquid is the one I ultimately found.
2. N95 Surgical/Filtration Mask – This will be useful for reducing person to person infection. The mask are currently inexpensive and readily available.
The last three (3) items I would encourage you to get in addition to the first two (2) just in case you are the one having to care for the sick individual.
A trash can with lid and trash bags to be placed just outside the quarantine room will also be helpful in containing the contaminated items. This way you will be able to remove the disposable items place them in the trash and cover.
Next go to lavatory and wash your hands using Hibiclens Liquid with warm water. A good rule of thumb is to sing the alphabet twice all the way through. This will ensure you are washing you hands long enough.
You may also want to have disposable utensils, plates and cups. It is important that you keep contact with all items limited to the sick room. The less you have to be around this flu the better it will be for all. Use brown bottle Lysol or Lysol concentrate on ever washable surface in your home. What you can not wash – use Lysol Spray.
The CDC is preparing for a full blown pandemic. Don’t take chances.
The one thing I did forget to put on this list was disposable gloves which would also be of great help.
I get my best price on non-latex surgical type gloves at the local big-box warehouse store.
Great article Suni. One of our issues is that N95 masks are expensive here in Australia and we cannot buy them from Amazon as they won’t send them to us here. We can buy ordinary N95 dust masks but last time I looked they were $5 each which is a total rip off. I must see if I can find some better and cheaper masks somewhere.
There are other things that can be done. Make sure your vitamin D level in your blood is in the top 20% of the reference range of the blood test. Failing that make sure you take 2000 units daily. Its hard to overdose on vitamin D and its the first line of immunological defence. Also vitamin A helps and supports the integrity of the skin and the linings of your airway and lungs – so supplementing with A may well be helpful. Alternatively eat lots of liver and other animal offal. Adding half a teaspoon of tumeric – the cooking spice – to your food will support your immune system. If you don’t like eating it (I don’t) then just put the tumeric straight in your mouth and add a mouthful of water, swishing it around in your mouth before you swallow. It not only helps against infections, it protects against heart attacks, autoimmune disease and it reduces underarm body odor. Plus its cheap.
You are taking D3, right?!
Or, get gel caps and make “pills”, then just take the “pills”. I use a “00” size “Capsule Machine”, which isn’t a machine at all, but a quite clever device for quickly filling 24 of these gel caps at a time. I ordered my “machine” from Mountain Rose Herbs online; I buy gel caps at the local whole foods co-op, but you can order them from Mountain Rose and other places, no doubt. I just can’t bring myself to swallow certain herbals without a “pill” method – turmeric, valerian root powder, etc. But, boy, do they work!
Here’s an instructional posted at Mountain Rose Herbs on them:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/capsulemachine.php
They sell for $13.50 (plus shipping and tax) and come in 2 sizes, “0” and “00”. I haven’t tried the “0” yet; not sure what it’s for, just being honest.
Harriet, Great information on the vitamins and herbs. Thank you!!! Sorry to hear that you can not purchase this mask from Amazon, I did not know these would be restricted by any country. I wonder why? A N95 mask would be the most helpful but any mask will be of some help. Have you ever tried using ebay? I am not sure if they even carry medical stuff as I have always just gotten it from Amazon. This H7N9 is spreading very quickly from the country of origin, China. China and Egypt are the hardest hit so far but cases have also been found in France and England. This has all taken place within 2 weeks so it seems to be moving rather quickly from country to county.
Good morning, Suni! Good morning, Harriet! Yes, ebay carries N95 particulate respirator masks – hundreds of them.
Harriet, I can’t help but wonder, also, WHY the N95 is not available in your turf? Is it because there is something believed to work better in your area? I believe you are studying emergency medicine, are you not? I’ll bet there would be an answer there. On the other hand, if you need the N95 and can’t get it, any reason why someone in the US couldn’t get them for you and send them to you? If you need my email contact, just ask Bev – I’m sure she would be glad to help, eh, Bev?!!
I would like to say this, also, and I hope it doesn’t come across the wrong way….while Suni is absolutely right – this is not a joke, and we need to take some serious pre-emptive measures for preparedness, we need to be careful not to panic. It has long been a trick of the CDC and the UN to “panic” the general populace through health scares; this is hardly the first (if that’s what it is) and will not likely be the last. So, yes, prepare…know what to do and be ready to do it (that’s why we’re called ‘preppers’, y’all!), but don’t panic. Not until you have a reason to panic, anyway. :)
Servantheart, oh I agree completely with what you are saying and I do agree 100% with your analogy. The reason I felt led to go ahead and report this is because it is spreading so fast to other countries. While researching for the news. I will skim webline papers from Australia, Israel, Russia, and sometimes Germany (nothing against Germany here folks) but they don’t often carry what I am looking for. Anyway I do think we should be ready for what ever may come our way. One thing about these products if you keep them dry they will be there when you need them. Thanks for the comments Servantheart
You are a wise woman, indeed, Suni! Hey, you asked about contact…please feel free to ask Bev to send you my email address…I don’t think she would mind?!
will do and thanks Servantheart
I’m with you, Harriet, having the immune system in the best possible condition is the first defense. In addition to the supplements you listed, I have a strong proclivity toward vitamin C. It strengthens the immune system and also purges toxins and other impurities from the blood and internal organs. During an early Avian flu epidemic in China, they found that sauerkraut cured the animals. I don’t know if it was a change in the pH levels or the effect of fermented food on the digestive tract that provided these results but it’s information worth filing away as an option. Some people have defeated cancer by taking turmeric. Not to long ago a pharmaceutical company filed a law suit trying to have turmeric banned but even the FDA said it has been safely used as a spice for so long that it can’t be banned.
Before you get a vaccine for H7N9 or anything else, watch this video . Dr. Tent has a number of videos on different maladies and his vast experience is well worth taking into consideration.
Pam I agree about taking vaccines as of right now will I take them? No, but then again I wont rule them out completely. I have bookmarked the you tube video and look forward to watching it. Thanks for the posting.
Yup; me, too! Thanks, Pam!