Survival Food – Freeze Dried & MRE

Samples tested for 8 of 9 children in NYC suffering Flu symptoms indicate likely to be Swine Flu.

Heightened concerns for global swine flu epidemic.

With news of a potential swine flu pandemic arising in Mexico it is a good time for a refresh on pandemic preparedness.

Have at least a month’s supply of food and water.

Wash your hands everytime you return home and especially before meals

Avoid touching your eyes and around your nose.

Use hand sanitizer at the office after meetings.

Cover your cough or sneeze in your shoulder (not hands) and use hand sanitizer after.

Once the threat level is severe and local use N95 or N100 masks when you go out if you have to. Use a new mask each day to ensure the protection remains effective

Stay at home as much as possible. This is easier if you have a food reserve.

Boost your immune system by getting a full nights sleep, eating regularly, and avoid drinking alcohol. The flu virus itself may not kill you, your weakened defenseless immune system, once attacked, will be overcome by common threats.

News broke a few days ago that Panasonic had advised employees overseas to arrange for their families to return home by September 2009 as part of influenza pandemic planning.

See the story at CIDRAP.

The WHO (World Heath Organization) was perplexed at the action by Panasonic.

A Panasonic spokesman quickly issued a statement that Panasonic had no “proprietary” information on an elevated risk of an influenza pandemic.

He also denied it was related to cost cutting.

In my humble opinion – this “pandemic planning” is related to costs as well as concerns over social unrest in China and other countries as the threat of a global economic depression looms.

However it is always best to be proactively prepared so that when any news comes you don’t need worry and react hastily and make poor decisions on how you are prepared.

But if you are not prepared now with the small but very significant risk of an economic depression then it is likely you will not be prepared for a sudden disaster or pandemic. Now is the time to be prepared for anything as there will be no time and little to get prepared later.

While much attention has been paid to H5N1 and to a lesser extent H7 avian flu viruses the potential is also real for H9N2.

This is according to a research article (Replication and Transmission of H9N2 Influenza Viruses in Ferrets: Evaluation of Pandemic Potential) published on the website PloS One.

Per a related article in Science News one of the authors of the research article, Daniel Perez is quoted;

“The H9 may be a silent virus that doesn’t get noticed until it’s too late,” says Daniel Perez, a virologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.

A key finding in the article that raises concerns is that of an avian-human reassortant virus;

Unlike the H5N1 avian-human reassortant viruses that lack transmissibility in the ferret model [37], our H9N2 avian-human reassortant virus replicated in ferrets more efficiently than the parental H9N2 virus.

This is important as 2 previous flu pandemics arose from reaasortant viruses (the 1918 pandemic did not).

This is according the article titled Lack of transmission of H5N1 avian–human reassortant influenza viruses in a ferret model;

The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 were caused by avian–human reassortant influenza viruses that had acquired human virus-like receptor binding properties.

The 1918 H1N1 virus likely derived all eight genes from an avian virus.

More information can also be found in this Science Daily article Pandemic Potential Of H9N2 Avian Influenza Viruses.

What does this all mean?

1) The threat of a pandemic is just as likely now or anytime as it was a few years ago during the H5N1 scare.

2) Hugging a ferret that just escaped from a research lab is a bad idea, but you don’t have to worry if it sneezes.

I found these interview comments by Michael Leavitt, US Secretary of Health and Human Services on the impact of a severe pandemic flu.

Awareness of the need for pandemic flu preparedness came 2 years ago when the risk of a pandemic outbreak from the avian flu virus (H5N1) escalated.

Fortunately, a flu pandemic did not materialize and the risk has abated somewhat.

However there is always that risk present as there were 3 pandemic outbreaks that occurred in the last century. And present conditions, even with the technology and medical knowledge available today, make the occurrence of a pandemic flu no less likely nor the impact less severe than in the past.

From a preparedness point of view what can we expect and plan for?

Here is a statement from the PandemicFlu.gov website;

A pandemic may come and go in waves, each of which can last for six to eight weeks.

An especially severe influenza pandemic could lead to high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts can range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

With possible reductions in the food supply and a general desire to limit your exposure to other people and thereby risk of infection it would be highly desirable to have a food reserve of up to even 3 months for you and your family.

While it may be tempting to think that you will have time to prepare if the threat escalates again in the future, the fact is many preparedness food options will quickly become difficult to obtain.

Recently with the awareness of food price increases and as well as the threat of food shortages, which for the US became somewhat exaggerated for a time in some circles, the result was survival food quickly went out of stock with long lead times of 6-8 weeks.

While the availability of freeze dried food in #10 cans has come down to 2-4 weeks lead time now, based on this recent experience you can imagine what will happen when a future pandemic flu threat escalates and starts to get more and more news coverage long before the actual pandemic occurs.

So why wait?

Freeze dried food reserves for 3 months can be had for as little as $2.90 per meal.