Pandemic Preparedness Checklist

Are you stocked up to outlast a pandemic? History has proven that pandemics happen. Check your preps against the Pandemic Preparedness Checklist below to find out how prepared your are for an outbreak of infectious disease.

These items will hopefully never be necessary. If they are, they will fly off the shelves and out of warehouses faster than most will be able to place an order. It’s better

Pandemic Preparedness Checklist

This pandemic checklist was created as a resource to help you locate the supplies you need to get prepped for a pandemic with the potential to overwhelm our health care system. It is not intended for preparation for any specific illness or threat. It is also not intended to prepare anyone for nuclear or dirty bomb contamination.

How would you care for a loved one, if help was not available and avoid becoming sick yourself? That’s the need this checklist was designed to address.

Items listed may be helpful in certain situations, and useless in others. Some, all, or none of this may be appropriate depending upon the disease in question.  Do your own research, and use your common sense.

Use this as a guide either for the specific item you need, or as an example of what to be looking for. You may require a different size, a different fit, different amounts, etc., than the specific item linked to below.

This checklist is evolving and items will be added/removed as information, protocols, and best practices evolve. If you know of something that should be on this list, please leave a comment below.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Please double check sizes before ordering.

In case you are caught without your gear, and need to protect yourself from splashes, contaminated body fluids, etc., and you must improvise, thick trash bags and duct tape may be appropriate for emergencies. Both items can easily be kept in a vehicle, Every Day Carry bag, Bug Out Bag, or first aid kit/medic bag just in case.

Points to remember:

  • Unless you are aware of the containment or disease present, and you are 100% positive that full coverage is not necessary, the body must be totally covered with no skin exposure. Err on the side of caution until proven safe.

Decontamination

Points to remember

  • Taking off the protective gear is one of the most likely opportunities for a potential exposure.
  • Always use the “buddy system” to remove contaminated clothing.

Sick Room/Tent Set Up and Supplies

Being able to establish a quarantine area away from any living spaces of healthy would be ideal. A tent may suffice, but if cold weather is a factor, this may not be feasible. Having a toilet close to the bed would also be ideal. If this is not possible, a commode should be made available, and a plan for human waste removal and disinfection of commode or toilet in place.

Other locations need to be designated and prepared for decontamination, laundry, and to deal with waste/hazardous materials.

 

Fatality Management

Unfortunately, now matter how well you prepare, not everyone will survive a deadly pandemic. In order to minimize the risk to others, especially if the disease is unknown, the body must be assumed to still be infectious even after death.

For many cases, a body is not contagious. In some instances, such as Ebola, it is. If we have experienced a collapse of our way of life, and doctors, hospitals, and diagnostic tests and equipment are unavailable, and then an contagious disease rolls into town, you may never know the name of that little bug. Unless you are sure of what caused the death, treat every dead body as if it is contagious after death.

Using Ebola and HVFs as a standard for all unknown illness one might be faced with, guidelines for safe burial procedures can be found in this World Health Organization document at starting at Section 7, “Use safe Burial Practices“. According to this guide a body must be buries 2 meters deep, which is almost six and a half feet deep.

  • Waterproof Body Bag
  • Be sure to spray, body, body bag, and transport vehicle with 1:10 bleach to water ratio.
  • Wear all PPE when handling a dead body if you do not know the illness that was the cause of death.

IF BURIAL SERVICES ARE STILL FUNCTIONING, DO NOT DIY THIS AT HOME- CALL THE PROFESSIONALS! As long as law is in effect, obey all laws and regulations regarding burial. The suggestions posted here are based on the WHO recommendations, and intended only for when you are WROL (Without Rule Of Law).

Disclaimer

The Pandemic Checklist is intended as a general guide to Personal Protective Equipment, supplies, and procedures in the event that our hospitals and medical system became overwhelmed. It is not intended as a substitute for medical care if such care is available.  Use at your own risk.