… but it definitely belongs on your preparedness shelf.
—–
The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases
Compiled by Enola Gay, et al.
148 pages
May 2011, Paratus Familia Press
I was pretty squeamish in my younger days. I felt faint at the sight of blood, especially other people’s. I imagined I had every grotesque disease my older female relatives described (“OMG, I’m coming down with pellagra!”). And they really liked to describe them. The more horrible the better (“No. Oh heavens, I think it’s tetanus!”).
As I grew up, I got over that. I am (knock wood) immune to even the grossest imaginary ailments.
Still, I can tell you that when I was asked to review Enola Gay’s The Prepared Family Guide to Uncommon Diseases, I wasn’t looking forward to it. Those old memories surfaced and I figured I’d soon be detecting the symptoms of smallpox and bubonic plague in every mosquito bite.
I can report (to my relief and perhaps to yours) that The Prepared Family Guide isn’t like that. What it is, is useful. And simple enough for a rush consultation. And composed in such a straightforward way that it’s guaranteed not to induce either nausea or hypochondria even in weak-minded souls.
Enola Gay of the Paratus Famila blog compiled the information along with an M.D. and two of her family members. They originally intended it for the use of their own family and friends and some young ladies on a mission trip. They did not (and are careful to say, they do not) intend it as a replacement for a physician’s care or for any of the more general emergency preparedness medical books like Where There Is No Doctor or Where There Is No Dentist.
But as they gathered and organized the information, it became apparent that many people could use such a book. Even now, in “civilized” times, we’ve seen the resurgence of old diseases like TB and pertussis (whooping cough) in distressed populations. Small environmental changes can make an uncommon disease common (dengue or “bonebreak” fever has risen in hot, wet areas). How much worse might it be if sanitation and water-purification systems fail? If roaming vagabonds transport illness with them? If our immune systems are compromised by poor nutrition? If we can’t afford doctors? If we no longer have the Internet to tell us in moments everything we ever (or never) wanted to know?
In these circumstances it’s good to have a book that (as the back cover blurb says) “could be as easily understood by a 12-year-old girl as it was by her grandmother.” This small volume is useful and non-stomach-turning because of its simplicity and directness.
Section One lists 21 diseases or conditions in alphabetical order. In a spare three or four pages for each, using boxes and bulleted lists for clarity, it gives you:
- Description (What is it?)
- Symptoms (What does it look like?)
- Treatment (How do I care for my patient?)
- Containment (How did I get it? How do I keep it from spreading?)
- The doctor says … (An additional note from the MD co-author)
In some cases, there’s also a brief history of the disease.
Section Two gives recipes for everything from electrolyte replacement fluids (much needed for severe diarrhea) to lice shampoo.
Section Three instructs on how to treat various symptoms.
Section Four gives baselines for fever, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure.
And Section Five supplies a shopping list that includes pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, personal protection gear and more. (Fortunately, several of the medicines recommended in the book can either be gotten without prescription from veterinary supplies or purchased very cheaply via a prescription and Wal-Mart’s wonderful cheap-drugs program.)
Conditions covered include everything from once-common childhood ills to such fearful plagues as cholera, typhoid fever, and typhus (which we might like to believe we’ll never encounter, but which raise their ugly heads after disasters). Non-diseases covered include head lice, starvation, and radiation poisoning. Influenza, which can take so many forms, merits its own special section. It might be tempting to say, “Well, I’ll never encounter bubonic plague or malaria” — but in fact, both diseases are still with us, and malaria is a growing menace in some parts of the world.
My own initial skepticism about the need for an “uncommon disease” guide was blown away when I noticed something. No, I never came down with any of those fearful plagues my relatives loved to shudder over. But … as a child I nearly died from two of the diseases listed in Enola Gay’s book — scarlet fever and pertussis. Both were rare even then — and my parents had very conscientiously had me vaccinated against the latter, but to no avail. (They may not have gotten me needed boosters; I’m not sure what left me vulnerable. All I know is that whooping cough is a disease I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.)
So yeah. This is a book everybody should have on their preparedness shelves. (And BTW, NFI on my part. Amazon doesn’t sell the book, so your best option is to buy from the author at this link.)
“Enola Gay”? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola Gay
Sounds like a good reference book to keep nearby. I might wish she would add a few non-disease problems such as heat exhaustion, hypothermia, etc. — those environmentally-caused conditions which one runs into — but I understand the premise of the book.
Yep, I thought it was an odd choice for a pseudonym, too. But then, if you ever heard the story of how I got my name you’d know I have no right to wonder too much about others’.
As to things to add to the book, I could also think of a few — and perhaps Enola Gay and company will want to expand later editions. But I also think they were wise to stick with simplicity.
I too, highly recommend Enola’s work
I can count the number of illnesses I’ve had in my life on the fingers of one hand..but the last one was MRSA infection-it’s gross,and it takes a while to get over both the disease and the cure(one is as bad as the other). Might not be a bad idea to have this book sitting on your shelf.
My “most exciting” disease was rat bite fever (Streptobacillus moniliformis). Probably not covered in that book.
You could, if you ever feel like it, tell us the story of how you got your name. That should be entertaining.
“You could, if you ever feel like it, tell us the story of how you got your name. That should be entertaining.”
Maybe Claire met the wolf, as this Claire did in “Outlander.”
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-07-06-diana-gabaldon-outlander-anniversary_n.htm
I agree with Pat at the top. Personally, I’d like to see her add a few nutritional-deficiency issues (scurvy, megaloblastic anemia, etc.)
Thanks for the tip, Claire. I’m interested and will have a look at it.
A caveat: Uncommon diseases are *uncommon.* ( Nearly every medical student has self-diagnosed with things that have been recorded a total of three times in medical history.)
Bear in mind the old saw… “An uncommon presentation of a common disease is more common than an common presentation of an uncommon disease.” 😉
(Or more simply: “When a medical student hears hoofbeats, he thinks of zebras, not horses.)
It is also well to consider that malaria still accounts for over 1 million deaths worldwide annually, with 300-500 million new cases reported each year.
Now very rare in the US, it was once endemic in the Southeast, ranging as far north as Washington DC. (It appears to have left the latter location, apparently after finding itself in the loathsome company of politicians.)
Decades ago, common sense dictated draining swamps to eliminate mosquito habitat. That, and judicious application of DDT eradicated malaria in the First World and wiped out this horrid disease — except in places we don’t think about very much.
Of course, DDT is now banned and swamps have become EPA-protected “wetlands.” Even so, we can all sleep well knowing that the scourge of malaria is gone forever from our midst.
Just like bedbugs.