# Ways of Avoiding Cholera in a disaster / SHTF



## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

Just learning about some diseases and stuff, studying for my biological anthropology exam.

I thought I would start a Cholera thread cause, it probably deserves its own thread.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Will2,
Thanks for that!
I am interested in knowing how they treat water suspected of contami9nation. I chlorination will kill it but would simple boiling be good enough? I have a still and again I know that distillation will remove all the contaminates as long as it is controlled distillation (keeping the temperature in the stack slightly higher than 212F with the retort tube below the point in the stack where volatiles will remain in vapor form so that the water will condense but the higher volatiles boil off or are extracted for later use as fuel. (my still is a reflux still and it is possible to keep the stack at a very narrow temperature bands at different heights on the stack. For instance I can distill water and alcohol on the same stack and get pure water from the lower tube and get alcohol (mixed with some unwanted esters) from the higher tube. The alcohol would not be good to drink under these conditions but would be an excellent fuel.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Informative. Good post.


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

From what I know boiling is effective. Personally I see shocking water as a last resort. I also would avoid using a filter on known contaminated water as a first step, but would filter water that had been boiled.


Its not just water though, it is also food, or even accidentally swallowing a bug. Swallowing water while bathing etc... Or putting something other than water or food in you mouth.


While boiling reduces one source, there are others Paul.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

Boiling your water, maintaining absolute cleanliness in food prep, washing hands without re-contamination (TIPPY TAP) are all ways to prevent food/water borne bacterial diseases like cholera. However, should you contract it, you also need to know what to do. Basically you are going to be wasted and unable to do anything except spill an unending stream of liquid from your bowels. The video showed a cholera cot - that's about all you can do - lie of the cot and let someone else empty the bucket. You have to outlast the infection until it runs it course. People who die from cholera die because of the extreme dehydration. Your care giver must pour water and electrolytes (ORS - Oral Rehydration Salts) down you in the same amount that you are spilling out. If you can keep hydrated, you have a chance of surviving the infection. You cannot try to stop it up or else risk death from the bacterial toxins. It has to flush itself out. This is true of most dysenteries - better to let it flush out and keep hydrated, versus getting sicker from the toxins.
You can look up past threads on Tippy Taps and ORS. They are life savers.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Is isotonic saline a decent second best to ORS? or does the lack of potassium or something bite too hard?


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## BagLady (Feb 3, 2014)

RNprepper said:


> Boiling your water, maintaining absolute cleanliness in food prep, washing hands without re-contamination (TIPPY TAP) are all ways to prevent food/water borne bacterial diseases like cholera. However, should you contract it, you also need to know what to do. Basically you are going to be wasted and unable to do anything except spill an unending stream of liquid from your bowels. The video showed a cholera cot - that's about all you can do - lie of the cot and let someone else empty the bucket. You have to outlast the infection until it runs it course. People who die from cholera die because of the extreme dehydration. Your care giver must pour water and electrolytes (ORS - Oral Rehydration Salts) down you in the same amount that you are spilling out. If you can keep hydrated, you have a chance of surviving the infection. You cannot try to stop it up or else risk death from the bacterial toxins. It has to flush itself out. This is true of most dysenteries - better to let it flush out and keep hydrated, versus getting sicker from the toxins.
> You can look up past threads on Tippy Taps and ORS. They are life savers.


Thanks RN!! I will buy some electrolytes to keep on hand.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Something sometimes missed is clean, hot water to clean cookware & dishes. Some Dawn also. And absolutely important everyone washes their hands before eating.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

Spice said:


> Is isotonic saline a decent second best to ORS? or does the lack of potassium or something bite too hard?


It would be better than just plain water, but in the case of severe diarrhea, you really do need to replace the potassium.

Oley Foundation
How much oral rehydration solution does my child need? - Digestive Health - C-Health

The first link provides several recipes for ORS. The second gives dosage guidelines for children. 
I prefer the WHO formula, as it contains potassium and bicarb. I have all the ingredients, little plastic bags, and direction labels in a box, so I can make up packets for distribution in an emergency.

EVERYONE SHOULD PRINT THESE LINKS AND KEEP WITH YOUR EMERGENCY INFORMATION. It can save you life, or the lives of your children.

You can't just guess at this. If you get too much salt, it will also kill you. You have to measure accurately and give the right amounts, especially to young children.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

HuntingHawk said:


> Something sometimes missed is clean, hot water to clean cookware & dishes. Some Dawn also. And absolutely important everyone washes their hands before eating.


Boil all the drinking water you want, but if you do not prepare food on a clean surface and with clean hands, you are going to get sick. The first thing I do when i go into a village situation is set up my clean surface area for food prep. This can be a sheet of plastic, a piece of linoleum, or anything you can wipe off with 10% bleach solution. Your dishes need to be washed and rinsed with boiled water, and then set to dry on a clean surface and covered so flies and dirt don't get on them.

A tippy tap is a great, low tech way to wash hands without recontaminating. 
The tippy tap! | www.tippytap.org


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

This is a great thread. Dysentery will kill many people after SHTF. I've seen entire families knocked flat with life threatening dysentery after contact with bacteria laden water. It is no respecter of persons. Any kind of water/food borne virus or bacteria will spread like wildfire once a water source is contaminated. All if takes is one person to shed the pathogen and everyone who has contact with the source can get sick. Hepatitis A is spread in the same way and will knock you flat for months. Typhoid is a fate worse than death, if you survive at all. And now there is an drug resistant Shigella that has entered the U.S. I cannot stress the importance of learning how to properly wash hands, prepare food safely, and maintain a safe water supply. There are so many links in the chain. One broken link and illness will result. When SHTF and public services like garbage disposal, sewer, and running water cease to exist, the germs will take a deadly toll. Survival may very well depend on something as simple as hand hygiene, rather than bullets.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Problem with after washing dishes you can't put them upside down to keep bugs off them as the insides won't dry. So learned from a friend to just put a clean towel over then.


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## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

Note that hot water should be 87 to 100 Celsius. If it bubbles at normal altitude you are good. If you can't get the water to 60 celcius don't use it as it can promote growth. Ideally you want at least 70 Celsius water.

If you don't have supplies for this you can prepare rehydration solution of water sugar 6 to salt 1
http://www.who.int/cholera/technical/en/

This is like 1 gallon to 24 teaspoons sugar to four teaspoons salt


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Thanks Will2


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Excellent thread. Thanks for the info everyone.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

I don't store much bleach because I understand it degrades rather quickly. Is there some alternative that is more storable? I have water purification tablets and other means to make water potable; I'm thinking of surface decontamination.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Pool shock which you can purchase at Walmart. Its like urinal cakes.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

HuntingHawk said:


> Pool shock which you can purchase at Walmart. Its like urinal cakes.


there's qualifying "pool shock" for potable water and then there's lower quality for just disinfecting purposes .... it's the subject of thousands of postings across the prepper sites .... you need 70%+ pure calcium hypochlorite and no other chemicals included .... wrong pool shock and you're drinking chemical contaminates ....

the big box stores - like Wally World - rarely carry the correct pool shock .... usually available only thru the pool supply distributors .... packed under "ultra" or "super" pool shock .... no need to stock the lesser pool shock and avoid the confusion and problems .....


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Or you can be like me & have both types set aside.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

HuntingHawk said:


> Or you can be like me & have both types set aside.


and believe me the FYI wasn't intended for just you .... all kinds of preppers could be misled and have been in the past .... can't be drinking water tainted with fungicide preventative chems ....


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Cholera is most common in places with poor sanitation, crowding, war, and famine. 
A SHTF event will present 2 or 3 of these.

The bacterium that causes cholera, is usually found in food or water contaminated 
by feces from a person with the infection. Common sources include: Vegetables 
grown with water containing human wastes and raw or undercooked fish and seafood 
caught in waters polluted with sewage.

However, you can protect yourself and your family by using only water that has been 
boiled, water that has been chemically disinfected, or stored water. Be sure to use 
the bottled, boiled, or chemically disinfected water for the following: drinking, 
preparing food, brushing your teeth, washing your face and hands, washing fruits 
and vegetables, and most important, washing dishes and utensils that you use to eat 
or prepare food. All your hard work goes for nothing if your dishes are contaminated.
I won't go into purification of water, it's been covered many times. You should also 
avoid raw foods, especially the following: Unpeeled fruits and vegetables, raw or 
undercooked meat or fish, un-pasteurized milk and milk products, you can do your 
own pasteurization by heating milk product to 162 degrees F for 15 seconds or longer. 
But that would require refrigeration for proper storage. Another possibility for milk 
would be ultra high temp pasteurization at 284 degrees F for only 4 seconds.

*But for a SHTF event another FDA approved method is to heat the milk to 145 degrees F for 30
minutes. Some people refer to this as "home pasteurization".*


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

bleach everything. boil your water, wash you hands , stay away from houchie choochy mommas, basically most outbreaks I have seen came from bad water, so stay away from stagnant stinky water, you can also treat stuff with colloidal silver.


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