Personal and Family Preparedness
Preparing for a pandemic poses many challenges to individuals and families. Although some might expect that the federal government will come to the rescue, this is unlikely. According to Secretary of Health and Human Services Leavitt:
"Any community that doesn’t prepare because they think somehow the federal government will be able to rescue them will be tragically disappointed."
State and City governments have been passing the same message on: Your government will not be able to handle all the challenges of a pandemic without your active participation in preparedness.
What does this mean? Depending on the lethality of a pandemic strain of flu, you may be asked to stay home for the duration of a local outbreak. This is called Shelter-in-Place (SIP). In order to accomplish this, you will need food, water and other essential supplies to remain within your home for an extended period of time. Since local outbreaks of flu typically last 6 - 12 weeks, this should be regarded the minimum amount of time that you prepare for if you wish to avoid exposure to a potentially lethal virus. If you do need to leave your home, you will improve your chances of avoiding infection if you use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Of course, one of the easiest and cheapest ways to decrease your odds of infection in good hand hygiene. Other issues you may wish to consider include: energy (if the Grid goes down) and security (civil disturbances are expected). Imagining what life would be like during a pandemic can be difficult given that none of us has lived through a severe or very severe pandemic. Fictional Scenarios are useful ways to think through the issues involved.
You can get more advice on how to prepare from the following sources:
By Dr. Dave, PFI Contributor
By anonymous
A series of flyers prepared by Melvin Johnson, Director, Lewiston-Nez Perce County Emergency Management. Some of the material used in these flyers was derived from content on PFI including What is a flu pandemic and why should I prepare for it? and Solutions to Politically Correct Disaster Management (Special Guest Blog by Atropine). Some of the issues contain information from ReadyMom and Average Concerned Mom.