Update- 21 Questions About Ebola

Urban Man recently received a message from Phil M. regarding the recent post about 21 Questions About Ebola. Phil's concerns are well founded and I thought I would post them for all to see.
Also, the attached video contain some scary issues about Ebola that I have not yet researched, but the author does provide his own resources as to how he came upon the information.

Here is what Phil had to say"

"I read your 21 questions about Ebola yesterday. I am very concerned about it's possible spread. I have come across several contradictory articles in the media reference the risk posed by dead bodies. One article on the CBC site stated that people in infected areas are leaving bodies in the street for teams in hazmat gear to dispose of because the bodies are so infectious after death. An article on the CTV site made no such claim however the impression given was that once a person died the risk on infection faded. Perhaps this should be question 22? Is there a palpable risk? If so, how can we reduce it? what precautions should we take around the dead? Now that there cases in Spain and the US that we know of, the risk of this getting out is increasing geometrically. I have had a fair amount of NBCW training during my Military Career so I am aware of the risks and I am not panicky about it. I am however concerned for my family members who live in large Metropolitan areas where there are just too many people in too small a space. That is a recipe for disaster.Your thoughts would be appreciated. TTFN Phil"

Phil,

Below are some known facts that we have about Ebola and its transmission to humans. Following the facts is a website that has very information information related to Ebola that will educate one on how to protect against it.

Transmission

It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.

Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.

Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.

Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola.

People remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.

Key facts

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
• The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
• The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rain forests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas.
• Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation.
• Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.
• There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation.

The below listed website has some good information on Ebola.

World Heath Organization Website

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en/

Phil- thanks for your reply to my article and I hope this helps answer the questions that you asked. I am in no way an expert on the subject other than what I learn from the scientific websites covering the issue.

URBAN MAN

Tactical Intelligence



Mac Slavo from SHTFPlan.com recently posted a compilation of a forum thread put together by Chris Kitze from Before Its News. The original thread, found on the Survivalist Boards, features one man’s (name Selco) first-hand account of living in a SHTF situation with his family during the Bosnia collapse of 1992. Many of the forum members peppered Selco with questions which he was graciously willing to answer. This is a compilation of those questions and answers.

In this compendium, Selco describes what it was like living in a city for a year without power, fuel, running water, food distribution or any semblance of traditional commerce. Their currency was useless, there were no police forces or government, and the streets were ruled by gangs and violence. The survival strategies that he, his family, and community used to stay alive are eye-opening and may change some of the priorities that you have when it comes to preparing for a SHTF scenario where you live. Although it’s long read, I highly recommend it given the wealth of knowledge taken from someone who’s lived it.


http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/shtf-survival-qa-a-first-hand-account.htm

URBANMAN

Small, Gradual Survival Preps

Anonymous advice to LostAtTheEnd concerning Why the Need for Urban Survival......."Just continue to pick up items you can as you can get them. At least part of that task is underway You will find at first you may not feel like you have help but there are good sites just like this one. We found LDS folks to be very helpful. Seems they have made life practice of being prepared they also are very encouraging even if you are not LDS (we aren't). Talk with your mom and dad it sounds like they have real fiber. They may not have all the answers but they certainly will have info you will find helpful and offer support . Hang in and keep on keeping on! Dollar Tree (ships different items at different stores), and General Dollar Stores offer some deals on extra supplies for your storage. We watch for sales on items (cheap) which I am sure you do too. Once you hookup with other preppers you will find they have extra items they may sell or even give to you. You begin to feel more empowered as you find others of like or similar mindset. Hang in there."

UrbanMan's comments: Roger the good advice. I have had too many people tell me "it's too late to start prepping", whether we are talking about food stocking for gold and silver procurement. I always say, "it's only too late to prep when someoneis shoveling dirt over your face."

In a severe case of minimal resources,...meaning, money for the most part,.... ....someone may only have a few dollars of discretionary spending every pay period (two weeks). Five bucks can buy a few lbs of rice and a pack of bullion cubes. Two weeks later the next five dollars of discretionary spending can buy a couple packs of pinto beans.

Some of the "too laters" had this mentality for the past several years. Imagine where they would be now if they did what they could, when they could and continued to build. They could have stuck their five bucks every two weeks into a coffee can then after six months have some decent buying power for a larger load or something more expensive.

Having a yard or garage sale; a second, part time job are both ways to build additional income and therefore fund your preps.

A home based business not only can generate additional revenue, but can help save on taxes owed. A home based business is built around Products, Services or Information. Take a a look at what your personal assets are such as experience, personality, skills, potential markets, etc. I know a lady who makes soap for flea markets and gifts for relatives. This business expanded into lotions, then gift bags, then an internet site for electronic orders. This generated a decent amount of income, not to mention built some real skills.....how much would you trade for a bar of soap, after not having seen any since the collapse several years earlier?

And of course barter. There are reports all over the U.S. about larger groups of Americans moving to a barter society,.....even if it is just a small token protest against massive taxes. One of the best areas of barter to get into is the trading of produce.

So, the argument that it is too late to prep doesn't hold water,...neither does the "I don't have any money" argument.

Urban Survival Planning - Urban Mass Migration,.......again

I have written before about planning of subtle or mass migration effected by a collapse and knowing how that may affect you and you Survival site. Wouldn't you hate to be located right on/or near a major line of communication (highway or interstate) 10 miles out of a large metropolitan area when the food and water drys up? How many of the 200,000 people walking or driving out of the city will pay you a visit?

Mass migration is happening now,...for less that cataclysmic economic collapse reasons. This is creating vast areas of metropolitan areas vacated by "normal" population and left open for the use of criminal elements.

Yahoo! News reports, entitled: American Ghost Towns of the 21st Century

There are several counties in America, each with more than 10,000 homes, which have vacancy rates above 55%. The rate is above 60% in several.

Most people who follow unemployment and the housing crisis would expect high vacancy rates in hard-hit states including Nevada, Florida and Arizona. They were among the fastest growing areas from 2000 to 2010. Disaster struck once economic growth ended.

Palm Coast, Fla., Las Vegas and Cape Coral, Fla., were all among the former high fliers. Many large counties which have 20% or higher occupancy rates are in these same regions. Lee County, Fla., Yuma County, Ariz., Mohave County, Ariz., and Osceola, Fla., each had a precipitous drop in home prices and increases in vacancy rates as homebuyers disappeared when the economy went south.

Data from states and large metropolitan areas do not tell the story of how much the real estate disaster has turned certain areas in the country into ghost towns. Some of the affected regions are tourist destinations, but much of that traffic has disappeared as the recession has caused people to sell or desert vacation homes and delay trips for leisure. This makes these areas particularly desolate when tourists are not around.

The future of these areas is grim. Our research showed that many have sharply declining tax bases which have caused budget cuts. Forecasts are calling for the fiscal noose to tighten on them even tighter.

These are the American Ghost Towns of the 21st century. Each has a population of more than 10,000 along with vacancy rates of more than 55%, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

1. Lake County, Mich.

Number of homes: 14,966
Vacancy rate: 66%
Population: 11,014

Lake County is located in central Michigan, a few hour's drive from the industrial cities of Flint, Pontiac and Detroit. It is in the heart of the state's fishing district and has been a vacation destination since the early years of the car industry. Many of those second home owners are now gone. This has helped drive nearly 20% of the residents below the poverty level and the median household income to under $27,000 a year.

2. Vilas County, Wis.

Number of homes: 25,116
Vacancy rate: 62%
Population: 21,919

Vilas County is located at the uppermost part of Wisconsin, near the border of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The county is plagued by two things. The first is that it has been a tourist area for Wisconsin residents. The second is that a significant part of the county's economy depends on the logging, forestry and construction industries, each of which struggled during the recession.

3. Summit County, Colo.

Number of homes: 29,842
Vacancy rate: 61%
Population: 26,843

Summit County sits northwest of the Pike National Forest and due west of Denver. The area is near to several major ski resorts. The local paper reports on revenue "The decrease isn't linked to the dramatic dip in assessed property values in Summit County, expected to be near 20 percent lower than in the previous valuation period. Those changes will show up in property tax bills starting in 2011."

4. Worcester County, Md.

Number of homes: 55,749
Vacancy rate: 60%
Population: 49,274

The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation recently estimated that the county would have a sharp drop in its tax base in fiscal year 2012 and "another, more drastic, revenue decrease" for the fiscal year that follows. The twin engines of county's economy are tourism and agriculture. Experts believe the tourism business in Maryland's Eastern Shore could stay crippled for years.

5. Mono County, Calif.

Number of homes: 13,912
Vacancy rate: 59%
Population: 12,774

Mono County sits near the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Parks. Ironically, Bodie, the official state gold rush ghost town, is in Mono County. Finance Director Brian Muir recently said he expected another property drop in property tax receipts. Like most of the other counties on this list, tourism is a major source of revenue for its economy.

6. Dare County, N.C.

Number of homes: 33,492
Vacancy rate: 57%
Population: 95,828

Dare County includes the northern-most parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks. The situation in the vacation area is so severe that the "Outer Banks Voice" recently wrote, "If Dare County Manager Bobby Outten was intending to sound an alarm by suggesting that the EMS helicopter and school nurses were expendable in the next budget, he probably succeeded." His comments are unlikely to be terribly different from those of other executives of counties on the list. Vacant homes and homes which lose double-digit amounts of their value each year irreparably undermine the tax base. And, as services fall, fewer potential homeowners will consider investing in the area.

7. Dukes County, Mass.

Number of homes: 17,188
Vacancy rate: 57%
Population: 15,527

Dukes County encompasses the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The enemy of the local budget is, as is true for most of the counties on this list, falling property values. Vacationers still flock to the resort island in the summer as do seasonal workers. The county is close to deserted when the weather turns cold.

8. Sawyer County, Wis.

Number of homes: 15,975
Vacancy rate: 56%
Population: 17,117

The Sawyer County website has a link, prominently placed on the homepage, which goes to a list of foreclosed homes for sales by the sheriff's department. There are not many new homebuyers. The number of people who live in the county was flat from 2000 to 2010. The Hayward Community School District, located in Sawyer, will probably close one of its elementary schools. Sawyer is a fishing and biking destination, and has suffered from a drop in travelers from the southern part of the state.

9. Burnett County, Wis.

Number of homes: 15,278
Vacancy rate: 55%
Population: 16,196

Burnett County is at the western most part of Wisconsin near Minneapolis. The county's population fell from 2000 to 2010. County Administrator Candace Fitzgerald recently said that proposed budget cuts "could prove to be devastating and very hard to recover from." The county's attractiveness as a tourist destination has faltered. Home values have fallen for three consecutive years. Cuts in the Wisconsin State budget will lower state aid. People are more likely to default and abandon vacation homes than their primary residences. This has probably been an important reason vacancy rates in rural tourist areas in Wisconsin are so high.

10. Aitkin County, Minn.

Number of homes: 16,029
Vacancy rate: 54%
Population: 15,736

Aitkin County offers visitors two seasons for recreation. The first is in the summer when fishing is popular. The second is winter when snowmobilers come north. Aitkin is the last of the counties on the 24/7 Wall St. list demonstrating that rural regions which rely on tourists are especially exposed to economic hardship in a recession. They may take longer to recover than some industrialized cities do.