A New Dawn for Fighting Mosquito-Borne Diseases

A New Dawn for Fighting Mosquito-Borne DiseasesThe fact that mosquitoes carry a huge number of diseases is not new. But, what is surprising and potentially worrying is the fact that many diseases which had almost died out re returning, with a vengeance.

Cases of Zika, West Nile fever, dengue, and even malaria are on the increase. Combine this with a reduction in effectiveness of many antibiotics and you’ll quickly realize that you need to become best friend with your local exterminators.

The Two Sides Of The New Dawn

On the one side, the service offered by pest control firms has never been so important. You need to use their expert advice and skills in order to keep the mosquitoes away from your home:

Getting Rid Of Standing Water

Standing water is the perfect spot for mosquitoes to breed in. One of the most important things you and your pest control company can do is locate any standing water in the area of your home and eliminate it.

Netting

Keeping them out of your house can be done by using mosquito approved netting on the doors and windows. These are surprisingly effective and will keep your house safe.

Vegetation Management

As well as getting rid of water it is important to look at the vegetation around your home and even any piles of wood you have. These are the perfect spot for mosquitoes to rest on during the day; they are most active at dusk.

By identifying likely resting spots you can eliminate them.

Chemicals

Of course, pest control companies will use chemicals and insecticides to prevent eggs from hatching, treating any standing water and eliminating them on the vegetation.

On the other hand, there are some remarkable advancements happening in medical science to help prevent mosquitoes from being an issue and spreading disease:

Vector-Control Techniques

The use of new insecticides, many of which have been spread via the use of bed nets across the sub-Saharan area of Africa, is estimated to have saved 663 million diseases from having been contracted between 2000 and 2015!

Unfortunately, due to a reduction in the use of these bed nets disease numbers are starting to climb again. Now the technology is being reapplied to help reduce the mosquito population again.

New Insecticides

The success of DDT in controlling insects led to a lack of drive to create new products. However, many of the original DDT insecticides are now banned or losing their effect?

Fortunately, new insecticides are being developed to help in the fight.

New Repellents

Mosquitoes are able to locate humans from the carbon dioxide we all breathe out. It’s only when the mosquitoes get close that they are able to locate exposed skin; this is also through skin odors.

Blocking the natural odor of the skin prevents the mosquito from being able to detect your presence. New research has made these mosquito repellents even more effective.

Gene Sequencing

Gene sequencing and cloud computing are proving to be very effective at helping to spot potential outbreaks and prevent them from happening.

By using a mixture of these techniques you’ll be able to eliminate mosquitoes from your home and help the world at the same time.

Treating Severe Burns: You DON’T Have Enough Supplies

 

2nd Degree Burn on LegA little over three weeks ago I burned both my legs.  Now, as a semi-competent experimenter, I have burned myself a bunch of times.  However, this was serious.  I burned both legs, from just below the knee to the top of my foot almost 360 degrees.  The burns were deep second degree burns with a few thrid degree spots thrown in.

I was messing around with gas, an I knew better.  So when my wife said not to light the fire, I told her to be quiet.  That was pride talking when I knew I should not do what I was about to do.

Pride comes before a fall, and when the gas vapor ignited, the temperature was low enough it did not “whoosh”, but the wind changed and basically, I was engulfed.  Now it was only for a second, and did not do a lot of damage, but the fresh bug spray on my legs started to burn, which did me a lot of damage.

So now I have a reason to post about treating severe burns.  I am not a doctor, but as I said before I am familiar with burn injuries.

This Article is not About Basic Burn Treatment

We all know to cool a burn and not to apply grease or butter.  This post is about supplies and the daily aftercare.

When I first was burned, it did not immediately hurt, I played it off for a few minutes, so as not to “embarrass” myself around my wife.  However, once the pain hit, it was horrible.  For a old fat guy, I have a pretty high pain tolerance.  I have been pepper sprayed and tased enough to have lost count.  I have broken a leg, and have sliced crushed, and otherwise injured myself much more than the common man.

Not to put to fine a point on it, after standing in a cool shower for several hours to both cool the burn and control the pain, I had to lay in the bed and cry.  The pain was as close to unbearable as anything I have ever felt.  My wife wanted me to go to the Emergency Room, but I was afraid they would admit me, and I had the last class of my graduate certificate on Monday.  I could not afford to miss a day of work.  Additionally, if they did not admit me, I knew the only treatment was pain medication and a prescription for Silver sulfadiazine.  I had some left over from when I burned my kitchen down and got to buy my wife a new kitchen and plastic backsplash.

I had lots of roller gauze and non stick pads, so I felt that I would just deal with the pain.

Daily Treatment

My regimen was to put the Silvadene on, cover it with a non0stick pad (it took a bunch to get total coverage), and then wrap it with roller gauze.  For additional protection, I also used a ace compression bandage for light compression for the swelling.

I had a lot of swelling, and the reduced blood flow because of it caused me problems.  It took me an hour to get out of bed Monday morning.  When I put my foot down the blood flowing into the area caused me severe pain.  Additionally, stretching the burned skin by walking also caused a lot of pain.

Luckily, the more I moved, the less pain the skin caused.  Too bad I was in class all week and spent the time sitting at a table, and getting up at breaks.

The pain of getting up increased for a few weeks, and finally went away the start of the third week.

Blisters to Pop or Not?

After about 24 hours I started getting blisters, they were mostly around my ankles to start, but I kept getting more and more.  Eventually, I had several blisters that were the size of my fist.  I tried not to pop them, because infection is a huge concern with severe burns.  The weight of the liquid inside the blister caused the blisters to travel down my legs stretching and peeling the remaining skin.  Eventually, after about a week they popped on there own causing my wife much anguish when she saw the “blister juice”.

The smaller blisters never popped, and it is not recommended to pop them.  Sometimes large blisters are popped by medical staff to control how it is done so the skin does not rip.

I finally went to the doctor after 5 days.  I just could not take the constant pain and I was afraid of infection.  She gave me some pain medication, a new prescription for silvadene, and some antibiotics.  I was told I would scar, and that it would take about 6 weeks to heal.

Deal With Itching

The itching was terrible, still is after three weeks.  At the time, I did not know that itching is a side effect of the cream.  It is also a side effect of the healing skin.   I had several large areas where the first couple layers of skin was burnt away, and the entire area was sensitive and peeling, so a good satisfying itch was not available.  The only thing I could do was to lightly press on the injury and let the pain overcome the itch.  After some reading, I learned that anti-histamines could help with the itch, so I started taking the allergy medicine I keep around for when I get bee stung.  That actually helped a lot.

You Don’t Have Enough Supplies

As a long time prepper, I have more than just some bandages in the bathroom closet.  I felt pretty prepared for first aid emergencies.  Actually, as far as the initial treatment, I was about as prepared as anyone could be.  However, it was the twice daily dressing changes, and the daily ointments that gutted my supplies.  I now know just how ill prepared I am.

Going to the pharmacy, box store, or the local dollar store just doesn’t cut it when you are going through 4 sets of gauze, a tube of antibiotic cream, and 2 boxes of non-stick 2×3 pads daily.  I was spending huge amounts on supplies, and my wife was tired of running to the store.

I went to amazon and bought in bulk.

This gave me great savings, and was convenient.

3 inch Conforming Stretch Gauze Bandage Rolls

I bought a three pack of 3 inch Conforming Stretch Gauze Bandage Rolls.  This gave me 36 rolls per order.  The gauze I selected cost $12.00 and came with prime shipping. 

To be fair, I am not as happy with this gauze, as I was with the 2 pack I got at the dollar general, but that was about $4.00 a box so it was really apples and oranges.

This gauze is not sterile, and it comes in a bulk paper container, so once you open it 12 rolls are exposed.  However, going through 4 a day mitigated the problem.

From now on, I will have a unopened pack in my medical supplies.  I still will have a smaller amount of higher quality roller gauze for smaller scale incidents.

75 non-adherent pads

In the same order I got a bulk pack of 75 non-adherent pads.  Because of the size of my wounds, I was going though boxes of smaller 2×3 pads.  Because of this I bought the largest pads I could find.  These were 3″ x 8″ and were labeled as “No Stick Non-Adherent Film For Ouch Free Removal”  These absorbent cotton bandages cost $17.33 (prime shipping) for a box of 75 or $0.23 each.

I find that I can cover the worst areas of the original wounds on each leg by wrapping three of these bandages around each leg.  After three weeks, my right leg is not completely healed, but the skin is not intact or scabbed over.

Most of my left leg is scabbed or has intact skin.  Currently I am using only one pad per dressing change.

Since these are sterile, it works well with the non-sterile roller gauze.  I plan on keeping a box in my medical supplies after this injury heals.  Since the large size makes it not as flexible as smaller pads.  It is my intent to also buy a large bulk box of similar pads in the more used 2×3 or 3×4 size.

Metal Style Clips Elastic Bandages Spares

Lastly, while I can hand wash my ace compression bandages, and they stay relatively clean as they are covering the roller gauze, and are covered by my pants leg.

I found that with a lot of use, the metal clips break or get lost.  Also, some of my newer ace style bandages come with a wierd elastic clip that just doesn’t hold.

While ordering all the other supplies  I found a bulk 50 piece set of metal style clips for ace bandages.  the 50 peices only cost $3.79 and was free shipping so I bought a pack.  Unfortunately, it comes from china and is very slow to ship.  I haven’t gotten these yet, and I stopped needing the compression bandages because the swelling period has ended.

I recommend getting some spares, but buy them in advance.

In Conclusion

The best burn treatment is prevention.  My mom says that this means I should listen to my wife more.  So do my co-workers.  I work with some great people, they have been very supportive, while making fun of the limp and my stupidity.

Be careful when working, if this injury occurred during a disaster, then it could have easily gotten infected and could have killed me.  As it stands, it really impacted my abilities, and takes up a huge amount of time in my daily schedule.
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Reducing Lower Back Pain

An Effective Guide to Reducing Lower Back Pain

An Effective Guide to Reducing Lower Back Pain
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Lower back pain is a common issue that bothers millions around the world. A stinging pain affecting the lower back area- it is one of the worst things to suffer from.

There can be many reasons for this. It could be your wrong posture while lifting weights at the gym or due to the poorly supported old mattress you haven’t changed in a while.

The pain can vary based on the intensity and location of the issue. Fortunately, there are many options available for treating lower back pain. But before you make the doctor’s appointment, why not give these listed remedies a try at reducing lower back pain?

Home Remedies For Lower Back Pain

A Safe Option for Treating Lower Back Pain

Some of us do have the tendency to rush to the doctor in any case of lower back pain. Even if it the pain is mild. Just keep in mind that taking medications for such trivial matters can leave you with complications. So, it is always safer to try some home remedies first.

Try these home remedies to quickly get rid of back pain. Most back pains don’t linger on for more than six weeks.

1. Apply Ice or Heat

For the first two days of pain, apply a bag of frozen food or ice packs on the area of pain. Apply several times each day. Try to keep it for around twenty minutes.

After the initial two days, try applying some heat. You can use heating pads for this purpose. The frequency and duration of the application will be the same as before.

You may wonder how the whole thing works. You see applying something cold helps to numb the pain receptors at the affected area. It also helps to reduce the swelling.

Heat application, on the other hand, increases the blood circulation and oxygen flow, thus bringing relief to the affected area.

2. Wear Specialized Shoes

Depending on the structure of the foot, different designs of insoles and orthotics are available in the market. Getting the right support from shoes can reduce pressure on your lower back. Thus, it ultimately helps in reducing your lower back pain.

Consult a podiatrist to know which shoe is right for you. You don’t necessarily have to purchase a new pair of shoes. A change of insoles or orthotics may be sufficient.

3. Consider Changing Your Mattress

Mattresses play a big role in supporting your lower back. Old mattresses often sag in the middle.

Purchase mattresses suited for your back, something that provides you a nice combination of comfort and support. Use a mattress topper for added benefits if necessary.

Remember: A mattress with an age of above six years is starting to get old and inadequate.

4. Do Some Light Physical Activities

Physical activity will ensure that your muscles are in the best shape possible. It will also warm up your entire body. Regular physical activity also keeps the blood circulation on point, keeping lower back pains or headaches in check.

You don’t have to go all berserk on your first day though. You can start with some walking, cycling or yoga. And don’t forget to stretch. Especially, if you’re a desk worker. It is always wise to stand and stretch the whole body in between the long working hours.

5. Keep a Positive Mindset

It is important to think positively in case you are suffering from pain of any sorts. If you are anxious or tensed about your pain, the situation can get worse. Over-anxiety and worries can amplify the pain according to studies.

Thus, we recommend keeping the body calm and relaxed. This will definitely help you while you are trying to treat your lower back pain.

Suffering for More than Six Weeks? Seek Help from the Experts

You should consult a doctor if the pain is unbearable or if it lingers on for more than a month.

Your doctor might conduct various tests on the affected area to find out the underlying problem. Based on what has actually happened, he might give you the following recommendations:

1. Ointments and Creams

Topical medicines such as these are applied to the area of the pain instead of being swallowed or injected. These medicines can have side effects on your skin and can cause temporary discomfort.

2. Oral Medications

Your doctor can also prescribe generic drugs to alleviate the pain. If that doesn’t work, you might be prescribed drugs specialized to address muscle inflammation.

These drugs too can have a wide range of side effects including stomach problems. So, don’t take these without any doctor’s consultation.

3. Anti-inflammatory Shots

These will be prescribed only in case of emergency. These shots do provide relief but only a temporary one.

4. Consult a Physical Therapist

A physical therapist will study your body and look for any misalignment in the body structure. Active release therapy, exercises, stretches are some of the many different tools he might use to alleviate the pain.

There are other alternative approaches to treating back pain too. But make sure the one addressing your back pain issues knows what he’s doing. He should be qualified and well trained.

Some Final Words

Often times many people think that drugs or surgery are the keys to solving back pain.

But taking this route can leave you suffering from multiple side effects. It is better to try the safer options first.

Lower back pain can be irritating and troublesome but luckily has a number of solutions. There are awesome equipment on the market to help you get rid of this pain. Combine that with our tips and you can enjoy life with a painless lower back.

How to get Antibiotics Without a Prescription

How to get Antibiotics Without a Prescription
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Medical care is one area that we should try to be self-sufficient as possible. Medical personnel become hard pressed to keep up with the need. There’s difficulty in the resupply of the medications and the possibility of running out of stock.

Medical services and medicines may be limited and rationed during disasters.

Medical personnel would be forced to triage patients.  In order to conserve resources. medical staff can only help those who will be needed the most.

I want to ensure that my family won’t miss vital medical treatment.  This means learning first-aid and stockpiling medical supplies.

To a prepper, stockpiling medicines like antibiotics is essential.

However, proper handling of drug is also very crucial.

This article shows the basics on how to get antibiotics without a prescription.

What You Should Know About Antibiotics

Antibiotics are drugs that especially treat bacterial infection. You may wonder your doctor will never prescribe any antibiotic until he gets to see you first. He first needs to check whether what you’re suffering is bacterial or viral infection. This is because viruses don’t respond to antibiotics. If you have a simple flu, the doctor never gives you antibiotics.

Basic knowledge in the difference between bacterial and viral illness may enlighten you, save yourself from worsening, infection, money and time. Here are four tips to guide you in identifying if your infection is bacterial or viral. Take this advice only if you can’t see a doctor.

  • A bacterial illness causes fever. A viral infection doesn’t cause fever.
  • Bacterial infection lasts longer than 10 days while viral infection lasts 2 to 10 days.
  • Bacteria usually cause site-specific symptoms such as those in sinuses, chest or throat. Viral infection normally causes wide-spread symptoms.
  • A bacterial illness typically produces phlegm (yellow, green, bloody or brown-tinged). Viral infection may only produce clear or cloudy mucus.

Typical antibiotic treatment last for 10-14 days. If symptoms persist such as neck pain, severe headache and persistent nausea, it’s best to see a doctor. This would be the worst thing to happen. However, if you are alert enough to see some symptoms, you become eager to get some antibiotics. Unfortunately, you can’t buy antibiotics in US without the doctor’s prescription. You would like to stockpile as an emergency medicine supply.

3 Ways To Obtain Antibiotics Without A Prescription*

  1. Purchase Bird (or Fish) Antibiotics

Fish or Bird antibiotics are the same USP grade antibiotics manufactured by pharmaceutical human use. This means they are the same to the ones prescribed for people. They also come in capsule or tablet forms.

  • Ciprofloxacin – Fish Flox Forte (500 mg)
  • Metronidazole – Fish Zole Forte (500 mg)
  • Amoxicillin Capsules – Fish Mox Forte (500 mg)
  • Erythromycin – Fish Mycin Forte Pure Powder (300 mg)

You can also include Doxycycline – Bird Biotic (100 mg)

  1. Purchase Antibiotics From Mexico

Some Americans freely buy medicines without doctor’s prescription, selling prescription, selling prescription medicines. Americans is a big industry in Mexico.  Pharmacies line the streets of border towns such as Tijuana and Nagales.

  1. Purchase through Online Stores in Other Countries Where Human Antibiotics Can Be Bought Legally Over the Country

Antibiotics can be sold legally without prescription as long as the online shop is located in a country that does not require a doctor’s prescription for a drug.

However, this is still breaking the law. Importing non-prescribed antibiotics over the internet is a very low priority for the authorities. For example, there is one online shop that sells human antibiotics (based in Cyprus).

What are the Antibiotics that You Should Stockpile

There are a variety of kinds of antibodies out in the market, some are generic and some are branded.

For the most part, you want to stockpile the ones that will be useful in the widest variety of applications. Those are especially the ones which treat common infections caused by injuries.

Here Are Some Must-Haves Antibiotics

Amoxicillin

This is a good general antibiotic for many types of bacterial infections. It is safe for children and even pregnant women, although, some may be very allergic to it.

Azitrhomycin

Azitrhomycin is a great brand of antibiotic used for a lot of kinds of infections. The problem is that you can’t easily find or even buy it. It needs prescription to buy.

Erythromycin

One of the most effective antibiotics to use for infected wounds and injuries. Erythromycin can also be used for ear and respiratory infections, as well as some STDs. Safe for women and children. However, some people experience side effects, such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Ciprofloxacin

Best for things like urinary tract infections, prostate infections, respiratory tract infections (such as bronchitis or pneumonia), bacterial diarrhea, anthrax, and diverticulitis or infectious colitis (when combined with Metronidazole).

Children, pregnant women or nursing mothers should not take Cirprofloxin.

Cephalexin

It is great for almost any type of respiratory infection (bronchitis, pneumonia, strep throat, etc.) and middle ear infections. Cephalexin is safe for pregnant women and children and only has few side effects

Keflex

Keflex is a great antibiotic that can treat infections that are antibiotic resistant.  You can’t take Keflex if you are allergic to cephalexin or any other drugs such as in this link.

Zithromax

This is a ‘big gun’ antibiotic that treat hard to treat bacterial infections. It’s a good choice for people who are allergic to penicillin and its various derivatives. Zithromax is typically sold in a five pill, 5 day pack. People who have liver problems should not to use Zithromax.

How Much of Survival Antibiotics Should You Stockpile

Antibiotics are often taken twice a day during a ten days period. Zithromax is one notable exception for this. Also, in most cases, to treat an infection needs two pills. There are various of kinds of antibiotics for that type of infection they treat. Having 100 pills of one kind of antibiotic is still insufficient. You will likely need more than 100 other types of antibiotic.

The amount of variety of antibiotics depends on the kind of infection experienced by your family in the past. For example, if your child has had many wound infection, the kind of antibiotic differs according to its potency in killing the bacteria.

According to studies, bacteria have the ability to easily create a kind of protein that may help counteract the antibiotics.

Instead, some surviving ones will be able to identify the antibiotic and create their own version to make them immune to this kind of antibiotic. So the next time, this set of new bacteria encounters this same antibiotic. They are already immune and the antibiotic becomes ineffective.

The next time you use the same antibiotic to treat the same infection, it may heal slowly. It may need higher potency of the antibiotics. The cycle goes on. If another infection happens, you also upgrade your antibiotics. This is the reason why doctors need to prescribe you the right kind of antibiotic for the kind of infection you have, including your history of medications.

Where Can You Get Survival Antibiotics Without Prescription?

Like mentioned, Mexico is one of the nearest place to buy these antibiotics. US pharmacies don’t allow selling them with prescription. There is also some Canadian pharmaceutical houses that sell through mail-order, without prescription.

The Risk of Taking Antibiotics Without Prescription

One thing to take note is the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. According to World Health Organization (WHO), two of the reasons that they continue to emerge that make it harder to treat common diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonellosis, is misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and in animals.

Antibiotics-resistant bacteria means higher medical costs, longer hospital stay and higher chance of complications in infections. Aside from misuse and overuse, lack of infection prevention and control increases chance for the bacteria to be resistant.

Did You Know That?

There are kinds of bacteria commonly called as “Superbug” because of their high resistance to any kind of antibiotic. This is the effect of mishandling antibiotics that these super-resistant bacteria have emerged.

Conclusion

Even if you want to stockpile for your own survival medical stock, it still pays to know the dangers and limitations especially when dealing with antibiotics. Antibiotics, just like any other drugs also have side effects. Even if they are life saver in times of injury or infection, improper dosage or mishandling may have serious consequences.

For more tips and information on prepping, visit  https://preparedbee.com/

* Note from Dave: This is a guest post – I am not a doctor nor a lawyer and I cannot advise you to break the law.  I have not tried getting medicine from other countries personally nor do I plan to.  I have had good results with things like Dakin’s solution, Sugardine, and the occasional vet medication.