Ebola Survival Kit

It has been nearly a century since since the Spanish Flu took over half a million lives in the United States.  The memory of this disease is long gone and only an infant memory to the few octogenarians left from that era.  The current Ebola panic has preppers in a tizzy that it could be the next big bug to wipe out a major swath of the nation.  While we feel that a widespread Ebola outbreak is unlikely, that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t prepare.

Preparing for Ebola is truly no different than preparing for any number of disasters, but just as a nuclear war has special considerations, so too does Ebola or any other infections disease.  The first step in preparation is to understand the disaster you are attempting to survive.  Your best chances in surviving the disease is obviously not to getting it in the first place.  The surest way to avoid Ebola is to avoid those who have it, whether they are exhibiting full blown symptoms or your co-worker starts “not feeling well” right after lunch.

The decision to survive

Ebola shares commonalities with other disasters that don’t have a clear cut decision marker.  When do you pull up stakes and enact your plan?  An infectious disease is much akin to something like financial collapse, you can see it coming but you have to make a decision before it is too late.  Ebola’s possible 21 day incubation period allows for widespread geographical spread before symptoms are apparent in victims.  With Ebola, you cannot wait until your neighbor has a fever to enact your response plan.  The decision, or lack there of, to enact a plan will be the killer for a very high percentage of prepared people.  People have jobs, lives, friends, and kids attending school like the rest of folks, telling your boss you won’t be coming in today or for the foreseeable future because of Ebola will be a tough decision to make.  Making the decision to stay home bears a lot of weight on the shoulders of the individual.  You are not only risking your personal financial situation but you are contributing to the so called “panic” that might ensue should this disease start to spread unchecked.  Once the disease is unchecked, it is the only decision you can make.

Once You Have Make The Decision

Unfortunately, once you’ve made that decision, you are not in the clear.  You have a 21 day window to know whether or not you or  family members have contracted the disease.  If you want to play the game by the book, you will need to constantly monitor members of the family for the first sign of symptoms.  Having a non-contact thermometer on hand is a must.  Routine checks multiple times a day must be followed and quarantine at the first sign of symptoms is imperative.

You may wish to consider preparing a room in your home before any signs of symptoms of Ebola become present.  You want to be proactive here, an infected person will soon be projectile vomiting and have explosive diarrhea  Plastic sheeting and duct tape are two items that will come in handy here, they serve many purposes and the purchase can go a long way in other disasters (namely nuclear).  Prepare the room as to isolate it from the rest of the house.  Remove everything from the room except a bed.  It is best to pick a room with a hard flooring surface to aid in later clean up.  The plastic serves a dual purpose, both separation and easier cleanup should a person be infected.

If the unthinkable happens 

Just by the odds, if the disease has spread to your house the hospitals will be overrun.  According to the CDC, only 1700 beds at around 100 facilities exist that can handle Ebola victims.  It is possible that many more beds can be converted, but an actual outbreak would quickly cripple the healthcare system. Should a family member begin to exhibit symptoms you must ascertain whether or not hospital care is possible.  If not, they must be immediately quarantined to the room.  It is best to not have further contact with the individual.  I use the word individual, but that person will probably be a spouse, child, or other close relative.  It is a cold hard fact to digest, but even with the best medical care the chances of survival are very slim.  The best you can offer is palliative care, and that care is offered at the risk of spreading the virus further.  If you do choose to come into contact with a know infected individual you must isolate yourself as best as possible.  Tyvek suits complete with booties, sterile gloves, masks and eye protection are a must.  Again, these are must have items for preppers as they serve so many other purposes, but are often overlooked.  You also have to consider that these items are not the same as medical professionals would use, but it is all most of us can afford.  Be sure to duct tape any seams!   Remember, these items are one time use only, so it is best to have multiples in your kit!  Even worse, after each use, you must carefully remove these items and dispose (burn) them.  As we have learned, Ebola can spread via touching these garments when they are being removed.

Know the facts

Ebola can only survive for a few hours outside of a host, possibly longer in lower temperatures.  In a host, that is anything ranging from bodily fluids to a dead body, it can live far longer.  Studies have shown it can survive for 50 days or more in a dried tissue sample.  It is transmitted to another host via open cuts, mucus membranes, eyes and even via suspended saliva droplets from a sneeze or a cough.  It can be killed quite easily with a bleach solution.

If you have had an infectious person in an in home quarantine at some point you will have to either decontaminate the room.  If you are lucky, you will have removed everything from the room and prepared it beforehand.  If so, the next step would be to use a soak everything in the room with a bleach/water solution using a chemical sprayer.  Wear your protective gear and soak everything, walls, floor, ceiling.  Then don’t enter the room for months.

The wholly unthinkable

Should you have to deal with a body, know these facts.  The body is like a live grenade and will be contagious for a very long time.  The body will need to be cremated for it to cease being a disease transmitter.  This is gruesome, even to think about, but it is fact.  If the body is in the quarantine room you will have to remove it.  This procedure will put you in the most danger of infection.  Your best bet will be a body bag as it will allow minimal handling and easier transport, but you may also use plastic, very heavy duty plastic bags, etc.  Again, use the sprayer to disinfect anywhere the body, even in the bag has touched.   The objective is to remove the body, cremate it, and sterilize the path you took to remove it.  Carefully remove and burn any bedding or porous material that has touched the body or bodily fluids.

If an outbreak ever occurs on the scale as it has in West Africa, life as we know it will take years to return back to normal.  With each infection, another 21 day cycle begins.  Millions could die and the social and economic consequences would be dire.  Beyond the specific items needed to survive an Ebola Pandemic a scenario like this would call upon just about every skill we possess and test the limits of our preparations.  It may be a year or more before the outbreak burns out and much longer before life returns to normal.

Basic Ebola Survival Kit

To recap, in addition to regular preps, here are some items to consider.  Remember, many of these items serve many purposes.  I found many of them in my Nuclear Survival Kit.  Check out the below links:

• Non-Contact Thermometer
• Plastic Sheeting
• Duct Tape
• Tyvek Suits
• Sterile Examination Gloves
• N95 Respirators or better
• Eye Protection
• Bleach
• Chemical Sprayer
• Body Bag

Ebola Facts

This article originally appeared here at the Tin Hat Ranch