# Endemic Diseases



## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Just occured to me that many people may not know about, or be prepered for, diseases that are endemic to their area. Naturally stocking medications like antibiotics and herbal solutions will help, but understanding the diseases that naturally occur in your area and how they spread could certainly help contain new incidences of any disease. For ex....yersinia pestis (the plague) is endemic to northern arizona, rocky mountain spotted fever covers a larger than the rocky mts, and lyme disease is not contained in the north east. Does anyone educate themselves on the diseases that could crop up in their area? Does anyone know how those diseases are spread and have plans for vector control like keeping down the rodent and flea population? How do you add these considerations into your prep supply and thought process? I think this is something everyone should think about as they consider the prolonged well being of their loved ones. With a little forethought some of these issues could be nipped in the bud.


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## emilnon (May 8, 2012)

Excellent thread! Other than bugspray and rat traps I haven't prepped for pests... And I don't know much about endemic anything! More to go on the "to do" list...


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

A big reason I live in the desert. Malaria, west Nile virus, yellow fever and a bunch other nasty things are transmitted by mosquitoes. Fewer mosquitoes in the desert as vectors, and fewer people in the desert as hosts. 

Plague and hanta virus are spread by rats and mice. Or rather, the plague is spread by the fleas that live on the rats and other animals, too. Rodents seem to be rather resistant, but other animals are less so. Hanta is spread by rodent droppings and urine. Never handle a dead or live rodent without something impervious between you and the animal. Beware of newly dead animals as the fleas will be looking for an alternative host as the body cools; you do not want that alternate host to be you. Never sweep up rodent droppings or clean out nests without drenching them in 10% bleach solution first, and wear a good respirator (not a dust mask). Plague and hanta are usually present in low numbers of rodents in just about any population, so take precautions with them all. Don't wait to hear of an outbreak.

Bread bags, small garbage bags and the like are good for disposing of rodents. Place your hand all the way in the bag with the opening all the way up towards your elbow. Grab the (dead!) animal through the bag. Carefully pull the bag down your arm to enclose the rodent without touching it. Tie a knot in the bag close to the animal. If possible, pull the bag back over the rodent again and tie another knot, thereby double bagging it.

Remember that a 10% bleach solution is NINE parts water (not ten!) to one part bleach.


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

When dealing with pests, remember the vector triangle; food, water, shelter. Controlling any of the three will help knock down a population but not eliminate it. Control all three and you have a good chance of controlling the pest.

#1 Sanitation! This is the hardest for people to get sometimes. It doesn't matter how much you spray, if you allow food sources to remain available you will never get control! A greasy hand print will feed a roach for a week. Cookie crumbs are a banquet for ants. A dog food bowl is a feast!! Ants and roaches are more nuisance than disease vector, but they will destroy food stores quickly. (Roaches are cleaner than you think, and groom themselves often. We use this grooming behavior to help kill them.) Clean up spills and spatters immediately. Take out trash daily. Don't let people wander around eating and spreading crumbs everywhere. Pick up pet food and water at night. Keep pet food in a secure container. Pick up dog waste daily. If it could possibly be food for something, secure it!

#2 Water. This is a big one for rats and mice, and surprisingly, ants. Roaches and other insects don't need it as much as they get a lot of it from their food. Fix drippy faucets, and locate and fix any place where water collects and/or condenses. The pan under your fridge is a fine drinking pond for a mouse. Less of a problem in dry climates and yet another reason to live in arid areas. Pet bowls are another overlooked source. Pick them up at night.

#3 Access and/or shelter. A mouse can get through a hole the size of a dime, a rat through a quarter. Their skulls squeeze and allow them to fit into unimaginably tight places. Fill all holes and cracks with steel wool then caulking. They will chew through caulking but not steel wool; caulking alone will keep out roaches and other insects. Broken door sweeps and the holes around plumbing are common places where pests gain access. Older houses often have foundation/wall cracks that are big enough to let many things through. If you can't secure the inside to keep pests out, often you can secure from the outside. Place hardware cloth with quarter inch mesh around the perimeter of a building to keep mice away from a slab foundation. Dig down next to the slab and bury the cloth vertically about a foot or 18", keeping approx. 18" above grade. Replace the soil and secure the cloth to the house with staples or small nails. You don't want them climbing up and over the hardware cloth mesh and getting between it and the house. Kinda ugly but really works. Keep moisture away from the walls as much as possible. Slope the soil so that rainwater drains away, and don't plant next to the foundation. If you are irrigating plants next to the house, stop it! This helps keep termites away too.

Integrated Pest Management is one of the things I do professionally. I will be happy to help with individual problems as much as I can.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Ticks and all the diseases associated with them are endemic to this area. Our farm dogs wear Preventic collars (the systemic flea and tick treatments did not keep ticks off of them). We wear high boots when out on the ranch and in the woods. Dogs and people get checked before coming into the house during high tick season. 

We don't butcher the feral hogs so we don't have an exposure for Swine Brucellosis. I'm amazed at the number of people who do butcher the hogs and don't wear protective gloves and eyewear. This is one nasty disease.

West Nile is not a high concern because our lake is spring fed and the water is moving. We don't have any places on the ranch where water can collect and become stagnant. Plus, we rarely go out at dawn or dusk without mosquito hats, long sleeves, jeans, and gloves except shoot the &$%# Nutria that's playing havoc on the foliage around our lake. 

We have some field mice out in the hay meadow; but, we also have a set of hawks and the occasional bald eagle that are happy to do rodent control. We keep rat and mice poison set out in all buildings except the house. The dogs are not allowed in the other buildings so there's not a risk of them getting into the poison. 

Rabies is a concern in any rural area because there's a disproportionate number of people who think their dogs and cats don't need rabies and distemper shots. There was a story in the local paper about a man who brought a skunk in that attacked several of his dogs. The skunk turned out to be rabid. The dogs were put down because they were not vaccinated. 

We have black widow spiders all over the place. We have to keep vigilent or it would be easy to get bitten. We have Black Flag spray in every building.

Because we live so far out we have to stock everything we might eventually need. I have Quick-Clot in every building at easy reach. We even have an AED. I need to chat with my doctor to get an anaphylactic injection kit to keep here as a just-in-case. 

We have a membership in AirFlight so if we need to be air-evaced it's a nominal cost to us. If we have something happen that's catastrophic enough to call an ambulance, odds are we'll be life-flighted because that will be the only way to get us to a medical facility in a timely manner. 

Thanks, dirtgrrl for the 10% reminder.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

And did you ever think the "systemic" may be the problem in the first place ????

Just a question ?????


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

*Andi said:


> And did you ever think the "systemic" may be the problem in the first place ????
> 
> Just a question ?????


I don't understand your question.


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## IlliniWarrior (Nov 30, 2010)

the spread of disaese after a SHTF event is going to kill off people faster than hunger .... all those sheeple, without any means or idea for field sanitary, are going to contaminate every body of water in the urban areas ..... it's going to be a major disaster within the SHTF disaster ....


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Although we dont have problems with mice/rats we have cases of rodenticide on hand and for inside inside isects we also have cases of flypaper. I was impressed at how effective the flypaper was at catching most all inside insects that fly inside an enclosed area(even mosquitoes). As for outside flying bugs I guess hats and long sleeves will help.

In areas where Fire Ants infest, their are fewer instances of ticks and fleas and we are in one of those areas. Although fire ants dont carry any disease that I am aware of, to control them boiling canning water works well when poured on hills.

Recognition and a flyswatter is a good remedy for "Black Widows" and "Brown Recluses) . I dont have a perfect pest/vector remedy but likely better than most.


Doxycyclin, Streptomicin and Ciprofloxicin are standard treatments for Swine Brucellosis in humans. Keeping those in your med kits would be a good idea whether you planned to hunt wild hogs or not.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Lovin it! Sounds like some folks have put a lot of thought into this. Lack of field sanitation is a great topic when it comes to spreading disease as well. I keep a military field sanitation manual in my library. Probably not many sheeple know how to properly construct a "long drop" toilet.


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## horseman09 (Mar 2, 2010)

Country Living said:


> Rabies is a concern in any rural area because there's a disproportionate number of people who think their dogs and cats don't need rabies and distemper shots. There was a story in the local paper about a man who brought a skunk in that attacked several of his dogs. The skunk turned out to be rabid. The dogs were put down because they were not vaccinated.


Skunks are of particular concern. A skunk can be a rabies carrier without always being symptomatic. Around here, skunks and possums (possums are a danger to horses) get our special treatment of a lead pill.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

I figure that the pioneers made it with a lot less than I have.


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