Pandemic – Why are people so concerned when it’s just a flu virus?
And not even a flu virus that currently exists, at that? Of all the “Stuff hits the fan, it reaches even down here to rural Missouri, and help is not coming” scenarios for which we prep, I consider this one most likely: an influenza pandemic of a strain that kills a high percentage of the people it infects.
Spanish flu killed millions; and this particular story is likely to be retold. Every available space became a ‘hospital ward’.
We’ve had pandemics before
The Spanish Flu during WWI killed millions worldwide – and it wasn’t killing mostly the old and the sick as most flu does, either. The otherwise most healthy young adults were the most likely to die. There are two reasons for my concern:
1) Flu strains mutate fast and share lots of genes with each other, making new combinations arise all the time. Some of those strains are Great at getting themselves passed from person to person without so much as a handshake. Flu pandemics are regular occurrences for this reason.
2) Some of the flu strains provoke one’s immune immune system to attack so rabidly they cause what’s called a ‘cytokine storm’. In a cytokine storm the immune cells are pumping out large quantities of chemicals (cytokines) that provoke other immune cells. It’s the excessive immune reaction that kills most people with these flu strains; and otherwise healthy adults have the best immune systems and so fall prey more easily.
What would I do about it?
I am not a physician and these aren’t medical recommendations for what you should do. They are thoughts on what one person with professional contact with the issues would herself choose to do for someone she cares about if that person came down with one of these flu strains, and is provided for informational purposes. Of course, I’d be using techniques that should be available to every prepper.
If hospital care was available, I’d take them there.
I’ve said it before and will again: Hospitals are great places to get sick. This is particularly true during pandemics, when they’re stuffed full of people shedding germs and the staff is impossibly overloaded. If my beloved is already showing the fever and cough I’d still get them to the hospital in a hurry if I thought there was any hope of getting them in. They’ve already caught the thing, so that horse has left the barn.
Hospitals are most likely to have something like oseltamivir (Tamiflu) on hand; drugs that impair viral reproduction. That helps. They’re also the only place I could get my beloved on oxygen therapy and a ventilator if needed, and that’s a big hairy deal. With cytokine storms, supportive care while the patient’s own immune system sorts things out is vital.
Support at home
If the strain of flu had a high infection rate, the hospitals may already be full to the gills. Or there might be travel restrictions that prevent us getting there. Travel restrictions did help some communities stay flu-free in 1918, and I’m not the only person who remembers that. I’d be worried about trying this option, it’s dicey, but you use what you’ve got, and that is:
Good positioning: Something called paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea can’t be good, right? It’s when a person lies down to sleep, fluid gradually collects in the lungs, and they wake up gasping with nightmares of suffocation. The mechanism that causes this is also active in cytokine storms. Sleeping at an incline helps considerably (this condition can actually be described by how many pillows the person uses to prop up). I’d settle my beloved in a recliner, or use this kind of pillow system:
These pillows turn a flat spot into a breathing-friendly recliner.
Flu medications
Over the counter immune system interrupting drugs: Fortunately for the prepper, much of the cold and allergy relief aisle is stocked with drugs to rein in overly-aggressive immune systems. I’d be reaching for:
Allergy meds. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is an antihistamine, and histamine is one of the cytokines causing the problem. Loratadine (Claritin) blocks a different set of cytokines.
Mucus relief/expectorants, and cough suppressors: These aren’t the same thing. Mucus relief products, also called expectorants, make the phlegm more watery and thus easier to remove. Mucus blockage is a problem with airway immune reactions, so these might help my beloved get more air through those airways. Guaifenesin is a common example. Cough suppressors suppress the cough reflex (surprising, huh?), and while coughing does help remove phlegm it tends to get seriously out of control with cytokine storms. Dextromethorphan is a common example. Honey seems to work pretty well too, but not as well and I’m bringing the big guns to this fight if I can.
Fever reducers: It’s not that fever itself is harmful, unless it’s ridiculously high. It’s that it revs up the metabolic rate so the person requires a lot more oxygen-requiring energy metabolism. I don’t like that when getting oxygen is one of the choke points of the problem. So I’d be giving a fever reducer such as acetominophen, ibuprofen, or whatever the favorite is, with a couple of caveats:
Checking all over the counter allergy/cold meds, to make sure they weren’t also including the same drug. Acetominophen overdose is a major cause of accidental poisonings because people don’t watch this.
I’d probably go this route for fever reduction…although with a careful eye to limiting dosage.
Also, some NSAIDS (the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) including aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, discourage blood clotting. I wouldn’t want that; I’ve read too much about bloody sputum with these flus to think that’s a great idea. I’d probably go acetominphen, that doesn’t have this action.
Asthma medications: They’re not over the counter so I don’t have them, but I’d wish I did. Albuterol and other alpha-adrenergic drugs relieve airway constriction.
On the up side…it’s a storm. If you can ride it out, life gets better.
