PREPS - What if there IS a smallpox attack?

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I believe the smallpox virus is spread by inegesting it into the lungs. You can ingest it merely from touching someone and then touching your mouth. I believe you can ingestit from someone's sneezing and coughing too. Problem is, no symptoms are visible so you may pick it up from someone without knowing, like from a sales clerk or check-out cashier.

Suggestions: Keep antibiotic wipes and/or waterless antibiotic soap in your car or purse at all times and use on your hands as soon as you leave a store. If an outbreak does occur, I think you'll see everyone going to masks, a la Japan in the flu season.

I posted something about ultraviolet lights placed in an HVAC system killing bacteria and mold--I have a large intake vent and would be able to fix up something without too much of a safety hazard (except for a trailing extension cord!). It's something else I need to check out.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Answers

Small pox is something I have to research, too. I also recall that touching your eyes with contaminated hands can start an infection, but don't take that comment as fact.

I dunno. Can small pox piggie back on the flu virus? I'm a lot more concerned about a "killer flu." It's fall in the Midwest, which means it's heating season and the air is dry. Bugs have to be tough enough to survive until they can get into that warm, moist nose. . .

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


From the Virginia Department of Health, 1998

http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epi/smpoxf.htm

Smallpox

What is smallpox?

Smallpox is a serious infectious disease that no longer occurs anywhere in the world. It is caused by a virus called variola. The last naturally acquired case in the world occurred in 1977. Since smallpox has been eliminated from all countries, a single case would be considered a national public health emergency.

How is smallpox spread?

Smallpox is most often spread by close contact with the respiratory discharges of a person with the disease or contact with objects contaminated by an ill individual.

What are the symptoms of smallpox?

The symptoms of smallpox include chills, high fever, headache, joint and muscle pains (especially backache), nausea and vomiting. Lesions in the mouth and throat that appear early in the illness ulcerate and release large amounts of virus into the saliva. The classic smallpox skin rash appears several days after the other symptoms. The skin rash becomes raised and then pus-filled. The pustules rupture, then dry and crust over approximately on the eighth or ninth day. The rash with lesions is most dense on the face, arms and legs and cause severe itching and burning.

How soon after exposure do symptoms appear?

The symptoms of smallpox appear about 12 days after the exposure, with a range of of 7-17 days.

How long can an infected person spread the virus?

Infected persons spread the disease until all of the scabs have fallen off the skin. This usually happens about two weeks after the rash began. Virus is also present in the scabs that separate from the skin.

What is the treatment for smallpox?

At this time, no medications have proven effective for treating smallpox. Patients with this disease would be given supportive therapy including treatment to keep the patient as comfortable as possible by keeping the skin clean, trying to control the itching, relieving the pain and other symptoms as much as possible. Antibiotics would be used only if bacterial infection developed as a complication.

How can smallpox be prevented?

Smallpox has been eradicated because the vaccine was effective and used widely to prevent cases. Isolation of persons with the disease, appropriate disinfection of articles that came in contact with patients and vaccination of contacts helped prevent the spread to others.

Vaccination

As a result of the successful eradication program smallpox vaccine was removed from the commercial market in 1983, and is no longer a licensed product in the United States. The United States Public Health Service maintains an emergency stockpile of approximately 15 million doses. At the present time, smallpox vaccine is supplied only to certain laboratory workers who are at risk of infection with smallpox-like viruses because of their occupation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow the release of smallpox vaccine to any other person for any reason.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


off!

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Evening all!

I've read two cases on the subject, and have learned that smallpox can be spread by indirect contact. I'm not saying that all smallpox would be spread that way, but it's contaigousness is without a doubt the most virulent we'll (God forbid!) ever see.

In one case, the pox was spread in a hospital from one floor to the next by an airvent!

A second case occured when patient #2 walked within 10' of patient #1's (who was infected with smallpox) room.

I've heard say that smallpox contagion can be spread by the wind for 100'+, though I haven't confirmed that distance yet. In my mind, it's better safe than sorry...

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


My printer is getting a good work out today. I made up a folder to keep alot of the information on smallpox. Thanks for the post.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


Me too, Maggie...I have a note book on WMD issues.

Ya know how the realtors go on and on about "location, location, location?" Well, small pox is "isolation, isolation, isolation". And ya gotta have preps to stay isolated until the stuff burns itself out in your area. One can't be running to the grocery store every few days for milk, egss and bread. You have to provide your own for at LEAST 6wks is my guess. three to four months is better. I am in the process of trying to finish up a few loose ends. Those loose ends include preps for small pox such as masks and gloves, qts and qts of peroxide. And instead of bleach, I have stuck away about 12 gals of pool chlorine which I can dilute for bleach. I think this will help with the fact that bleach loses its efficacy in a few months. I am constantly searching the forums for "hints". I pity the people who don't have access to the info or worse, thinks its bunk. I have a good friend who has terrible lung disase. But she is prepping as fast as she can with a spouse who thinks she is nuts. His response is, "not to worry...the gov't will tell us what we need to do". She told him today that the gov't would tell HIM what shelter to head for, but she was hunkering in the bunker. And that once he left the property, he wasn't coming back into it. I laffed as all I could think of was, "oh my God, I have created a first class doomer". LOL Taz

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


Taz, that is so funny about you creating a first class doomer. I'm sure her and her husband will be grateful for it. I bet her telling her husband, if he left he couldn't come back into the house!

"trying to finish up a few loose ends. Those loose ends include preps for small pox such as masks and gloves, qts and qts of peroxide."

I have to do the same thing. I was so pumped up and buying, buying, buying for Y2K, that now I have to push myself to get the other things that I need. I have read sooo much and tried to obsorb it all...that I am a little drained but, know I need to do it.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

Maggie

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001


I need to refresh my memory on bleach. As I recall, it loses half its strength after a year. So just use twice as much if it's that old! Anyone have a link?

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Git, that sounds right to me.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

My life is terribly constricted. Family, job, church, farm, MULE...363 days out of every year are spent within a circle with a diameter of only 20 miles.

And yet...I spend time with children a school whose parents commute to several different cities. I spend time with relatives, one of whom is a truck driver with a route that covers thousands of miles. I shop at stores where truck drivers are also stopped to deliver before going on their long, long routes.

If I had smallpox and didn't know it, I could infect most of the U.S. by the time I got diagnosed. So if there is ONE case, there will already be an epidemic across the whole nation, and every one of us may have already been exposed.

And I never get to go anywhere interesting...sniffle...

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001



Good point Helen.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

Like Helen, I don't get to go anywhere interesting, unless you count the hotels, but then they are not that interesting.

I see a lot of postcards from interesting places at work, though.

Can't remember the last time I was out to Miami Beach. Haven't been to see the bay or the ocean in I don't know how long, and yet I live only a mile or so from it.

My doctor doesn't seem to think that diseases like that can live on the mail to infect me. Still, I have to wonder. Then there are all the people in the building, and many of them have large families, like inlaws and kids and siblings and their families, so we could see this spread thru the building pretty fast. We don't all live in one area of town, we're spread out, some from way south in Florida City which is just before the keys, and others live up in Broward, almost to the northern county line next to Palm Beach. So, if there is an outbreak somewhere in dade or broward, there is a good chance that someone in the facility is near that outbreak, and affected by it to some degree, which in turn puts the rest of us at risk.

We just finished a little campaign at work that was aimed at cutting down on sick leave usage. Imagine people coming to work sick thinking it is just a cold or the flu, and it turns out to be something bad and contagious. Well, we've seen how management handles the suspicious mail these days, and they don't want people to call in sick, so I guess it is only a matter of time for me.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001


"ya gotta have preps to stay isolated until the stuff burns itself out in your area" That could be a year.

I think the 50% annual loss in bleach effectiveness is supposed to apply to OPENED bottles, but not sure about that.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001


You might be right, Brooks, can't remember. I do know this is primarily why aid agencies suggest you replenish any home-bottled, water purified with bleach every six months. Store-bought bottled water is no problem. I also vaguely remember that if your local water supply folks use chlorine to purify their water, you don't need to add any bleach.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001

I have public, chlorinated water, and I still add bleach to it for storage. What comes out of the tap is NOT, repeat NOT, intended for long-term storage.

One of the quasi-environmental laws in this state pertains to cross connections of public water supply systems. Two basic ones are fire suppression systems and boiler systems, where there can be a reservoir of water from the main tap just sitting there waiting. That water will go bad after a while, so it is very important that it not backfill the drinking water side if pressure in the street drops. So, if that is how your plumbing system is designed, you have to install backflow preventers and they have to be inspected and approved.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2001



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