This post is in response to an article that was published in the most recent "OFF GRID" Magazine ( available on shelves until 4/1/2016) - " What if - an outbreak of weaponized pneumonic plague hits your city" .I was drawn to this article for several reasons but my interest was mainly spiked due to the fact that the 3 scenarios presented by the survival experts were all taking place in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically in Seattle, WA and later on Pullman Regional Hospital in Pullman, WA which is basically our back yard.
I highly recommend you pick up this publication, especially if you are not familiar with OFF GRID magazine yet - we have never felt let down when picking up the newest edition - but I will give you a short summary of the scenario at play:
The article is discussing the situation of a pneumonic plague outbreak in Seattle, WA and 3 different scenarios, all from people that do not live nearby but are in the area on vacation or for business related travels and hence are limited with their preps.
2 colleagues have traveled to Seattle for business. Shortly after their arrival they notice Department of Health Vans and instantly react. They grab cloth napkins from the restaurant to tie around their mouth-nose area, empty anything useful from the hotel room, book a rental car and plot their routes by avoiding main roads and as thus avoiding contact with too many people.
They make it 300 miles outside of Seattle when one of them starts exhibiting the first symptoms of pneumonic plague. They again react immediately and head towards Pullman Regional Hospital, where they receive IV antibiotic treatment.
Another noteworthy point is that these 2 colleagues had taken another major prep in all their travels - they had gotten in the habit of mailing a package with basic equipment like knives, fire-starters and firs-aid equipment, as the TSA does not allow for these things to be carried on the plane.
Scenario 2:
2 colleagues have completed a job in Seattle and are sticking around for 2 more days of R&R. They don't notice the severity of the situation until , while waiting in line at a coffee shop, they hear news reports speak of terrorist attacks in the area.
As they have a strong military background, they head back to the hotel room, gather supplies at a pharmacy and head out of town. They prepared for pretty much anything - food, water, hypothermia... They head into the mountains and try to make it there. Due to their exposure however, they both fall ill and it is unclear if they grabbed the wrong medications ( codeine and peptobismol are mentioned, which leads me to believe they took a symptomatic approach, rather than a curative one) or if they took the antibiotics too late. One digs a grave for his dead partner and starts shoveling his own grave.
Scenario 3:
2 colleagues are out to dinner in Seattle and after spotting a homeless man coughing up blood on the streets earlier they catch the media coverage of the outbreak. They head straight back to their hotel rooms and decide to hunker down .As one of them exhibits symptoms, they create a quarantine room in the hotel bathroom. The second person stays outside the bathroom and once the news arrive that medications are being given out on the streets, he heads out but as only one pack of antibiotics per person can be handed out he returns to the hotel room and hearing his friend in bad shape, he decides to slip the antibiotics through the bathroom door to his friend and plans on heading out again the next day to get another pack of antibiotics for himself.
Unfortunately for him, the onset of pneumonic plague is incredibly fast and treatment is only helpful when administered within the first 24 hours, so he slips in and out of consciousness until it is too late. His friend, despite being weak, survives and finds his companion's body days later on the bed.
This article showed a very interesting and different approach to this "what if" question as it is happening in our neck of the woods and as the 3 different situations from the perspectives of 3 different teams are quite different.
The article leads us to believe that only the team from scenario one survives their exposure, and I have to say their approach is probably the one i have to agree with the most. It is probably THE MOST difficult decision to make, weather you hunker down or bug out as soon as you realize a bioterroristic threat is close-by that you may already have been exposed to.
The pneumonic plague is a interesting choice of bacterial agent as it is quite common and yet deadly. Yersinia pestis is the bacterium responsible for the bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. It is quite commonly found in rodents and their fleas and is found in several parts of the world, including the U.S.
From the website of the C.D.C.:
"Pneumonic plague occurs when Y. pestis infects the lungs. This type of plague can spread from person to person through the air. Transmission can take place if someone breathes in aerosolized bacteria, which could happen in a bioterrorist attack. Pneumonic plague is also spread by breathing in Y. pestis suspended in respiratory droplets from a person (or animal) with pneumonic plague. Becoming infected in this way usually requires direct and close contact with the ill person or animal. Pneumonic plague may also occur if a person with bubonic or septicemic plague is untreated and the bacteria spread to the lungs.
With pneumonic plague, the first signs of illness are fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery sputum. The pneumonia progresses for 2 to 4 days and may cause respiratory failure and shock. Without early treatment, patients may die.
Early treatment of pneumonic plague is essential. To reduce the chance of death, antibiotics must be given within 24 hours of first symptoms. Streptomycin, gentamicin, the tetracyclines, and chloramphenicol are all effective against pneumonic plague.
Antibiotic treatment for 7 days will protect people who have had direct, close contact with infected patients. Wearing a close-fitting surgical mask also protects against infection.
A plague vaccine is not currently available for use in the United States."
The good news is, prevention is key with this situation as with all others. Carrying N-95 masks with you, even on your travels does not add in a lot of weight, nor will you run into issues with the TSA agents. Add in a pair of gloves and a good hand-sanitizer and you can avoid infection in most cases.
In the case of an airborne agent such as this, especially in a terrorist attack where you might have already be exposed by the time you discover the threat, it is paramount that you get as far away from the threat as possible, while bettering your situation. In this case, bugging in or simply removing yourself from the situation would only have been helpful if you could have ruled infection out at the time of making the decision.
If there is even the slightest bit of doubt, you need to also make sure to better your situation - in this case and as described in the first scenario, this means getting as far away as possible from the threat but also getting to an area where you can receive adequate medical treatment.
Fortunately, pneumonic plague is treatable, and the antibiotics can easily be found on the internet and should be part of your medical kit at home as they can not only be used for the treatment, but also the prophylaxis of this disease!
Tetracyclines like Doxycycline for example can easily be acquired, just make sure they are human grade ( this can easily be double checked with a pill-identifier book or by googling the imprinted marks that are on every single pill, whether they are for human or veterinarian use - and you will find that many come from the exact same factories and have to go through equal safety controls and regulations and are simply packaged differently. If you would like help with this, feel free to message us on our Facebook page or send us an e-mail to emergencysurvivalgeeks@gmail.com !
There has been a single incident in which expire tetracyclines caused toxic effects and the death of a patient, and as such many in the survivalist community advise against storing these medications long term. Personally I think everybody needs to do their own research and make their own informed decisions, and especially in a " am i going to die from the plague, which is a 100% certain death or am I going to risk it and take a potentially expired antibiotic that I MAY die from or it could save my life " situation i think the answer is clear.
- " Do whatever is necessary to survive and thrive!"
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