In a few days my former-Navy-nurse daughter will fly out to help stand up a brand new 100-bed treatment facility for the International Rescue Committee in Liberia. Ebola is not a theoretical threat anymore. Now it’s personal.
My daughter has always loved being in the thick of things and has been fascinated with Ebola since childhood. Now, in just a matter of days, she will walk into a room filled with sick and dying Ebola patients, and all her training, grit, and compassion will be tested. She will eventually come home on a rotation and be under medical isolation here, in our home, for three weeks until she is cleared.
So you can understand that it troubles me that there is no “official” treatment routine for Ebola patients. I do know that most African patients are receiving only Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), which is a special mixture of salts to replace water lost to diarrhea or vomiting, or IV rehydration in a few locations. There are no other drugs, no other testing, and only minimal monitoring. Their own bodies will either fight it off or succumb. There are too many victims, and Ebola is spreading too rapidly for expensive and complex Westernized high-tech medicine, even if that would help, which clearly is not always the case.
However, we can do better.
I’ve spent the last month immersed in Internet research compiling, for my own family, to develop our personalized “Ebola Treatment Protocol.” It’s for people, like us, who might not have access to advanced medical care if and when Ebola comes to town. It’s based on the best information I can find, and there’s a lot of it.
I’m risking my own precious daughter’s life and our own lives, should this become an epidemic or pandemic in the United States. I’m betting that these measures will help. They’re not a cure, but they’re a lot better than doing nothing or just ORS.
We’ve started our daughter on these supplements. We’ve sent this protocol to the orphanage she founded in Kpando, Ghana, at their request, to give them something, some tool, that they can adopt and adapt should Ebola sweep through their community next. Also, we’re helping them select protective equipment, which unfortunately will not be up to newly announced standards (also see this article.)
I’m not afraid of Ebola, neither for myself nor my daughter. It’s just another potential threat that can be analyzed and prepared for, just like an economic collapse, earthquakes, EMP, wildfires, and more. I take my own advice, which is to trust God and be prepared.
Don’t go off half-cocked. If Ebola burns through our country, you’re going to have to have an eye for detail and do it right every time. There’s a lot more to do than have a treatment protocol in hand. You’ll need protective equipment, and you’ll need to figure out how to set up your own sickroom and the procedures for getting in and out and decontaminating and handling blood and vomit and maybe bodies. Make a plan. There could be a limited window of time when the best equipment and supplies are available.
It could be ugly, or maybe nothing will happen! That’s MY prayer, but only God knows. Don’t get sucked into all the Internet conspiracy talk of how it started and who stands to gain. Don’t lose the focus on what you’re going to DO about it to prepare. The goal of knowledge is action!
Some outstanding Internet resources can be found at these links. Please read them all:
- CDC description of the course of the disease. (Look up the medical terms you don’t understand!)
- 3M report on respiratory protection with filters. (It downloads the .pdf to your computer)
- Another link about protective gear
- A link to show you what kind of protective gear is available online. (Click the link in red to download their catalog in .pdf). You can also find some of these items for sale on Amazon****LINKS???**** and elsewhere.
- The CDC document “Infection Control for Viral Hemmorhagic Fevers in the African Healthcare Setting” [i.e., austere settings]. (Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the link for the English version .pdf.)
- This might be a bit of important information: a person could be contagious without a fever
- And the amazing “Establishing a Disaster Medical Center” (link at the lower left)
- The encyclopedic Zen Water Purification, Filtration, and Treatment.
- The many articles on SurvivalBlog.com about health, infection control, pandemics, and more!
- And my own humble foray into this topic years ago, “Personal Hygiene in a Biowarfare World” (under an old nom de plume)
There are many references in the Protocol Endnotes to explain why I included a particular supplement or procedure. I’ve worked on this for so long I can hardly see straight, but please don’t take my word for ANY of this. Do you own research. Draw your own conclusions. Make your own “protocol.” Just remember this: the best treatment is prevention!
“O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid:
O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years,
in the midst of the years make known;
in wrath remember mercy.” – Habakkuk 3:2
Trust God. Be Prepared. We can do both!
(Tomorrow, Part 2 will outline the Proposed Ebola Treatment Protocol.)