Quote:
Originally Posted by snoozan  ...Influenza and what we call "The Flu" are generally not the same thing. People don't realize how serious Influenza really is-- and if you're not laid on your back for a good few days to a week, you probably have some other viral infection. We tend to call any bad cold-like sickness with respiratory symptoms the flu... |
Last year the local hospital sent out an information brochure about the impending flu pandemic. I wish I could remember if I saved it or where I might have put it, because it had some really interesting information, but I'll have to go from memory.
Here's the gist of it: Another flu pandemic is inevitable, and could hit anytime in the next few years. Right now scientists are thinking it will be a strain of avian flu. When it hits, the death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands. Due to so many people being sick, there could be interruption of a variety of services (water, utilities, trash pick-up, transportation, shipping) and shortages of food and medicine. Hospitals, doctors offices, clinics, etc. will be overwhelmed.
The brochure also had a list of "how to prepare for the flu pandemic" which included things like stockpiling medicine and canned and pre-packaged foods. They also recommeded having enough bottled water to last everyone in the household for something like 2 weeks, in case water service was interrupted. I'm not sure, but I think they recommended storing something like a gallon per person per day. I don't know about you, but I don't have a place to store 14+ gallons of water.
Of course, I am totally unprepared for an flu pandemic, or any other kind of emergency that might hit.
