13.1K
Stocking antibiotics for a disaster has been a subject of dialog amongst preppers for so long as I’ve been writing about prepping (now 15 years). The problem, after all, is looking for over-the-counter antibiotics. It’s inconceivable, proper?
Not precisely. It can be executed, but it surely requires… unconventional approaches.
I’ll clarify, however let’s again up for a second.
Why Preppers Must Inventory Antibiotics
I’ve discovered most new preppers are inclined to first dive into firearms and meals. They’ll purchase up no matter they suppose the perfect gun for SHTF is, then they’ll inventory canned items and freeze-dried meals. Intermediate preppers start calculating how a lot water they need to retailer, begin storing rice and beans, and so on.
Inventory beans, bullets, and bandages!
– survivalist saying
Sprinkled between the meals and firearms, newer preppers will start including some medical provides. They could purchase a primary assist package or make an IFAK package. They’ll purchase a duplicate of The place There may be No Physician, and – often – that’s about so far as they’ll go for medical provides.
These are nice steps to take, and with out query, the prepper that takes these medical measures will likely be considerably better-suited to surviving a disaster than the typical American. Nevertheless, we are able to at all times do higher, and through a disaster, odds are excessive that antibiotics will likely be wanted by many. They’re one of many important medication I like to recommend folks pack in a bug out bag, they usually’re equally necessary at house for an prolonged disaster.
We Take Entry to Antibiotics for Granted
It’s straightforward to take our collective dependence on antibiotics with no consideration. We’re sick so we head to the physician’s workplace, find yourself seeing the nurse practitioner as a substitute, after which depart with a prescription known as in to our native pharmacy.
Simple peasy.
Nevertheless, this wasn’t at all times the case. The primary antibiotics weren’t prescribed till the late Thirties. After that, the charges of bacterial an infection as a reason for loss of life plummeted. Between 1944 and 1972, human life expectancy jumped by eight years on account of it. Penicillin ushered in an entire new period in medication.
If entry to well being care – and antibiotics – grew to become an issue, easy illnesses and infections that we expect nothing of at the moment may as soon as once more pose critical danger to our lives.
Antibiotics are Vital After a Disaster
Throughout a humanitarian disaster, whether or not it’s the results of struggle or pure catastrophe, communicable illnesses pose a critical danger to the surviving inhabitants. It’s the dangers related to inhabitants displacement that causes issues.
In response to a research from the Nationwide Library of Drugs:
The provision of secure water and sanitation services, the diploma of crowding, the underlying well being standing of the inhabitants, and the provision of healthcare providers all work together throughout the context of the native illness ecology to affect the chance for communicable illnesses and loss of life within the affected inhabitants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725828/
So, the breakdown in infrastructure and cleanliness results in a selection in infectious illnesses. An earthquake, for instance, destroys infrastructure and displaces folks, which then provides technique to illness outbreaks as a result of individuals are huddled collectively in an unsanitary atmosphere.
Examples embody an outbreak of norovirus in Texas after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and cutaneous leishmaniasis outbreaks throughout the Syrian battle starting in 2013.
In different elements of the world, cholera stays a significant issue. It’s an acute diarrheal illness that may kill inside hours if left untreated. Extreme circumstances require – you guessed it – antibiotic remedy. What is taken into account an issue solely in creating nations may rapidly create issues in trendy nations following an area or nationwide disaster.
How you can Purchase Over the Counter Antibiotics
Again within the early days of prepping, when prepping was nonetheless a largely “hush hush” matter lest you be seen as an extremist, there was solely my website and a handful of others devoted to prepping. The largest by far was Survival Weblog. There folks would usually focus on the best way to persuade their docs to prescribe antibiotics though they – medically – didn’t want them on the time.
That places the physician in a precarious place, and they aren’t more likely to simply go prescribing “pointless” antibiotics as a result of their affected person fears the tip of the world is coming. It’s attainable, extra so at the moment than yesteryear, to discover a sympathetic doc who would possibly assist you to out, however the odds are stacked in opposition to you.
If you wish to inventory antibiotics, you’re going to have to search out one other means. Following are 3 ways I’ve purchased over-the-counter antibiotics.
1 – Shopping for Antibiotics On-line
This strategy is a little bit of a cheat, as a result of “technically” it does contain a prescription (that’s how they’re legally distributed), however you don’t have to go to or speak with the physician. Whereas it’s not bodily “over-the-counter” it’s the similar thought – shopping for them on-line.
Jase Medical
Jase Medical is an instance of this service. They market themselves as a enterprise that gives people who find themselves getting ready for a disaster, pandemic, overseas journey, and so on. with a wide range of completely different antibiotics.
Jase Medical just isn’t a rip-off. I attempted the service and acquired the treatment.
This service is nice as a result of you may simply go online to your laptop or cellphone, undergo the web session (a collection of questions), after which the physician critiques your solutions and also you obtain approval for the antibiotics that are then promptly mailed to you.
In response to their web site the session requires you to “Fill out our easy on-line kind for an analysis from a board-certified doctor.”
See the screenshot beneath for instance of the forms of questions requested:
Their service is obtainable to everybody in america and Canada. It’s absolutely authorized as a result of they contract with physicians who’re licensed to prescribe medicines in your space they usually adjust to all governing medical legal guidelines.
So, whereas it technically requires a prescription, it’s not the kind of prescription that most individuals are accustomed to acquiring. It’s straightforward.
There’s a draw back to this strategy, nonetheless – value. You’re unlikely to get your insurance coverage to cowl their providers. You need to pay out of pocket, and that’s the place they make their cash.
As of this writing, Jase Medical prices $259.95 USD for the next antibiotics:
- Metronidazole 30-500mg Tablets
- Azithromycin 6-250mg Tablets
- Amoxicillin-Clavulanate 28-875/125mg Tablets
- Ciprofloxacin 28-500mg Tablets
- Doxycycline 120-100mg Capsules
That worth consists of their booklet and case. Canadian orders for a similar assortment prices $435.95 CAD.
Costly? Sure. Price it? That is dependent upon the outcomes of your SHTF plan, your medical circumstances, and the way a lot you’re keen to spend.
In Case
One other firm providing an identical service is In Case, a play off “simply in case.” They supply a package of doctor-prescribed antibiotics for emergency use. I’ve additionally used this firm and the customer support was stable. I went by way of their on-line well being questionnaire and the package deal of “simply in case” medicines got here within the mail shortly thereafter.
The corporate describes their service as:
The IN CASE “Package” is a field containing 6 doctor-prescribed medicines which goal remedy of extreme infections and accidents to be used in emergency conditions. These medicines deal with pure and organic catastrophe pathogens inflicting infections all through the physique together with the lungs, pelvic and urinary tract, pores and skin wounds, gastrointestinal, eyes, ears, and central nervous system. IN CASE was co-founded by an ER doctor who can be one of many nation’s main infectious illness researchers. IN CASE’s physician community covers all 50 states.
In Case advertising and marketing assertion
My In Case package deal included:
- Cephalexin 500mg
- Ciprofloxacin HCL 500mg
- Doxycycline Hyclate 100mg
- Gentamicin 0.3% eye drops
- Metronidazole 500mg
- Mupirocin 2% ointment
As you may see, the In Case package deal has some similarities to the Jase Medical package deal, but additionally a number of completely different medicines. The similarities are the important thing antibiotics that the majority preppers will need to inventory.
In a perfect world, you’ll have the ability to buy a package deal from every, as I’ve. That means you might have a better number of medicines, but additionally a extra sturdy provide of key antibiotics.
2 – Purchase Them in One other Nation
Each time I journey to Mexico, I’m shocked by what will be bought over-the-counter. Antibiotics? Examine. Prozac? No drawback. Valium? Ritalin? Viagra? Steroids? All of that.
To make sure, these are marketed in vacationer locations and what’s obtainable in a single space of Mexico will not be obtainable in one other space. I’ve discovered medication of this sort obtainable over-the-counter in Puerto Vallarta and Playa del Carmen. A visit to Oaxaca didn’t yield any drug shops that might promote these with out a prescription (although many pharmacies have somebody who can prescribe).
Is there a catch? Sure.
It’s not that these medication don’t work (they do, I’ve tried them). It’s that bringing them again to america with out a prescription may yield authorized issues. In response to an article from Very Effectively Well being:
You’re allowed to carry prescription medicines permitted by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) from Mexico into america on your private use. However there’s a restrict. On the whole, you might carry as much as 50 dosage models into the U.S. with out a prescription.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/prescription-drugs-from-mexico-2966765
That prescription have to be from a U.S.-based physician.
It’s not an unusual follow for folks dwelling close to the border with Mexico who’ve restricted funds/insurance coverage and wish lower-cost prescribed drugs to hop throughout the border for them and return house.
One other technique to receive antibiotics by way of journey is to talk along with your doctor prematurely of journey and ask for antibiotics in case you encounter digestion issues (like traveler’s diarrhea). Azithromycin is commonly used to deal with traveler’s diarrhea and plenty of docs will prescribe it as a “simply in case” prescriptions once you journey.
My physician has executed it earlier than for me. I didn’t want the treatment, so I saved it after the journey with my different medical preps.
3 – Purchase Fish Antibiotics
Anybody that has been within the prepping circles for any size of time is acquainted with the thought of shopping for fish antibiotics for human use. That is the simplest strategy, no? You go to your native pet provide retailer choose some off the shelf.
Does this even have a catch? In fact – security considerations. Are fish antibiotics secure for people? Good luck discovering a precise reply to that query.
The issue is that fish antibiotics are usually not regulated by the FDA, so there’s no assure what you’re taking is what the label says it’s. Because of this, and since you’re not first consulting a health care provider on the necessity for antibiotics, most individuals advise in opposition to utilizing fish antibiotics.
Is that this simply medical professionals being overly cautious? Maybe. In different circumstances, like a Pharmacy Instances article arguing in opposition to it, it’s logical to imagine these teams have a vested curiosity in holding folks coming to the pharmacy counter and never the fish retailer.
Nevertheless, primarily based on one other research from the Nationwide Library of Drugs, it’s clear that many people are self-treating with fish antibiotics.
I’m not going to dispense any medical recommendation right here. You could speak to your individual physician for that.
Nevertheless, I can inform you that if there’s a critical, catastrophic occasion that leads to my needing to take antibiotics and the one ones I’ve readily available are fish antibiotics – that’s higher than the choice in my thoughts, which is leaving the situation untreated.
Conclusion
Preppers could be clever to inventory antibiotics as soon as they produce other necessities squared away (meals, water, and so on.). They need to know what antibiotics deal with which circumstances and they need to at all times begin by attempting to acquire a prescription from a prepper-friendly physician.
In need of that, there are choices to acquire antibiotics over-the-counter, however every comes with a possible downside.
What are your ideas? Let me know within the feedback part.
