Preparedness for when

fuddle

thriftwizard would she come work for us as a carer? We are always looking for staff. You know where I am if you want any more info

[Deleted User]

I always carry a small bottle of anti bac hand gel in the front pocket of my rucksack, particularly useful if I'm on the fairly long journey to visit either of the girls and need to have lunch (which I take with me so I know that's clean) on the journey. I've done it since the first bottle of gel appeared on the shelves of my local chemist as when my youngest was 5 we made a visit to a friend in Cheshire by train and either from the train itself or from catering food purchased at the station I got a dose of food poisoning that I'm never likely to forget. I think our world is an extremely grubby place populated by people with very suspect hygiene practises and I'd rather NOT repeat the previous experience. The bottle is used immediately before eating or drinking and I NEVER use the train toilet, under any circumstances, I find them too gross to contemplate. I make sure not to touch any part of the infrastructure of the train after I've cleaned my hands and make sure that nothing food or drink wise does either and hopefully that should always do the trick.

VANOONOO nice to see you post again, hope things are improved for you and that life has settled down and is treating you kindly my dear, come back and join us, I miss you, Lyn xxx.

GreyQueen

Your poor TDil. Here's hoping she can get a better and less germy job.

I spent my childhood being taunted for my ginger hair. It was a bright shade which lightened still further in summer sun. I still have a lock of hair cut when I was about 12; coppery-gold.

My hair darkened after that age, to a mid-brown, with individual strands of pure copper or gold. It's now fast turning white. But I was traumatised by being taunted as a carrot-top and gingernut for my formative years. People are so piggin' ignorant and it seems that it's acceptable to taunt redheads for our differences in ways which are criminal offenses if aimed at persons of different ethnicities.

Re hygiene in public areas, I've got to the point where I won't use public swimming pools. I know the EH complaints from users about the uni pool (also open to the public) via work and 'solids' feature heavily. And one of the blokes on a course I attended, a no-nonsense outdoorsy guy, told me what was cleaned out of the pool where he worked on the maintenance side. He said he'd never again use a public pool after what he'd seen and his face was screwed up in disgust over the memories. Plus, when I had a run of ear infections, the first question the nurse asked was did I go to the swimming pool.

lobbyludd

re antibac gel: you'd be better off sticking to normal soap and water hand-washing - the physical action of washing removes bacteria, fungi and viruses and the soap kills a fair few (including i think I've read ebola). It also doesn't interfere too much with your natural flora (ie the good bacteria that live on your skin ata ll times and keep it healthy) killing/altering this can leave niches for pathogens to thrive on your very own skin.

re hand hygiene in toilets - if you are in good health don't get too upset about it. think through the system one goes through - unless you can do everything post wash without touching anything - i.e. turn the tap OFF without touching it and open the door out of the room without touching it - you immediately reinfect, albeit at a lower level and that's without taking into account the aerosols produced by flushing the loo. plus urine - in most cases - is sterile.

clearly during an outbreak of whatever you'd want to be more careful, but we aren't actually in that situation here yet - thankfully. The poor sods across the way are, and we need to be helping them.

old fashioned quarantine measures won't work on a global scale now - flying is not the only way of getting out of a country, and flying direct is not the only way of flying from a to b - you'd be talking a near total lock down on all travel anywhere, by land, sea and air. how? and manned by whom btw? - so are we advocating military rule as well?, how far, across the globe? shooting those who do not comply? smuggling people is rife in normal circumstances (and always has been by the way - even as an island nation we have NEVER been able to secure our shores) with higher stakes and higher motivation it will be harder to detect and people will be more inclined to disappear - we need borders open, travel transparent and to treat those who are ill - so they don't go underground.

do we allow aid in and those brave enough to fly out to care back out again? are you really willing to give up all freedoms to a government regularly distrusted on here, for the sake of a virus that in global/normal terms has had no impact - I am not underestimating the horror those people infected with it face, the tragedy for their families, and the fear and terror of those communities - but there is a line between discussing preparations for situations and contributing to a hysteria that exacerbates a problem rather than keeps anyone safe.

often we talk in terms of prepping as an isolationist activity - but we would be far better building community resiliance - and that includes a global community - so how about a discussion on what we (very rich people globally speaking) could do to help those countries already suffering?

Mojisola

lobbyludd wrote: »

re antibac gel: you'd be better off sticking to normal soap and water hand-washing - the physical action of washing removes bacteria, fungi and viruses and the soap kills a fair few (including i think I've read ebola). It also doesn't interfere too much with your natural flora (ie the good bacteria that live on your skin ata ll times and keep it healthy) killing/altering this can leave niches for pathogens to thrive on your very own skin.

re hand hygiene in toilets - if you are in good health don't get too upset about it. think through the system one goes through - unless you can do everything post wash without touching anything - i.e. turn the tap OFF without touching it and open the door out of the room without touching it - you immediately reinfect, albeit at a lower level and that's without taking into account the aerosols produced by flushing the loo. plus urine - in most cases - is sterile.

A friend who is a science teacher does an experiment with her students every year - they take swabs from a selection of places around the school and culture them. The swaps from the toilet door handles always score better than classroom door handles and stair rails because the cleaners regularly wipe them with disinfectant whereas the other surfaces around the school rarely see anything other than a duster.

I'm another fan of handwashing with soap - gets rid of everything in one go.

daz378

yes the march against austerity

mardatha

And it's a danger too when you're too bloody knackered to make the effort. Sometimes, like today, it's too much effort. You just want to get in the door, get to your chair, and collapse into it. The RV reminded me I hadn't washed my hands and I felt like saying oh who cares it will be fine. LOL - but I got up and did it. Shop counters /door handles/money are all filthy.

lobbyludd

daz378 wrote: »

yes the march against austerity

fab - in the organisation I work for is releasing people who want to volunteer to go help in countries affected with ebola on full pay under a number of schemes - (I shan't be volunteering - single parent with young children - and don't have the main skills they are after), there's a great article in the guardian on the diaspora response to Ebola, and how that is being co-ordinated to help those "home" communities affected.

There are of course the usual charitable routes who all have appeals on, volunteering our time for them helps, or even lobbying our MPs to release directional aid to those countries affected. I honestly think that this sort of activity is much more important than buying in extra stocks or discussing when to keep the kids from school - both from a strictly humanitarian viewpoint, but also from a self-motivated survivalist standpoint.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

As an interested and relatively-intelligent amateur, I cast a jaundiced eye over the persons congregating around Calais attempting to make illegal entry into the UK. Living in squalid camps, many from African countries, trying to get past lawful immigration and disappear once in the country........not a good thing.

you said what lots of us are thinking but don`t say :T

I need to get some thin bleach in, I used some yesterday to clean underneath the bottom of my dishwasher door. Honestly it was shock horror when I examined in that area with a torch, I just didn`t think of cleaning in there and I am a clean person

Thanks JK0, I cannot see any diagram. My position re charging is the reverse as we get cheaper electric while the sun shines but the original question was about holding the charge as it is not worth charging items that lose their charge quickly

I am on a high this morning as I managed to get some money taken off my broadband charge and also negotiated half price bb if I get the phone/bb package when my by line rental runs out in dec. Then I talked about my line speed and the lovely tech person at plusnet talked me through what I could try. I just did it and upped my speed from 3.9 to 5.1. I am so chuffed

Mad-Frog

lobbyludd wrote: »

re antibac gel: you'd be better off sticking to normal soap and water hand-washing - the physical action of washing removes bacteria, fungi and viruses and the soap kills a fair few (including i think I've read ebola). It also doesn't interfere too much with your natural flora (ie the good bacteria that live on your skin ata ll times and keep it healthy) killing/altering this can leave niches for pathogens to thrive on your very own skin.

re hand hygiene in toilets - if you are in good health don't get too upset about it. think through the system one goes through - unless you can do everything post wash without touching anything - i.e. turn the tap OFF without touching it and open the door out of the room without touching it - you immediately reinfect, albeit at a lower level and that's without taking into account the aerosols produced by flushing the loo. plus urine - in most cases - is sterile.

clearly during an outbreak of whatever you'd want to be more careful, but we aren't actually in that situation here yet - thankfully. The poor sods across the way are, and we need to be helping them.

old fashioned quarantine measures won't work on a global scale now - flying is not the only way of getting out of a country, and flying direct is not the only way of flying from a to b - you'd be talking a near total lock down on all travel anywhere, by land, sea and air. how? and manned by whom btw? - so are we advocating military rule as well?, how far, across the globe? shooting those who do not comply? smuggling people is rife in normal circumstances (and always has been by the way - even as an island nation we have NEVER been able to secure our shores) with higher stakes and higher motivation it will be harder to detect and people will be more inclined to disappear - we need borders open, travel transparent and to treat those who are ill - so they don't go underground.

do we allow aid in and those brave enough to fly out to care back out again? are you really willing to give up all freedoms to a government regularly distrusted on here, for the sake of a virus that in global/normal terms has had no impact - I am not underestimating the horror those people infected with it face, the tragedy for their families, and the fear and terror of those communities - but there is a line between discussing preparations for situations and contributing to a hysteria that exacerbates a problem rather than keeps anyone safe.

often we talk in terms of prepping as an isolationist activity - but we would be far better building community resiliance - and that includes a global community - so how about a discussion on what we (very rich people globally speaking) could do to help those countries already suffering?

I couldn't agree more with you.

I find it desperately sad that once again the World has stood by and done nothing to help in Africa, and it's my opinion and feel free to disagree that if the Ebola outbreak had happened anywhere else then the world would have intervened much more quickly.

I really hope that aid starts poring in, although on the news today the funds needed to combat Ebola have not been raised by Countries worldwide. What a shame we never learn just because it's Africa it gets ignored. Lets hope that in years to come the Worldwide community wakes up and efforts to get clean water and sanitation, healthcare to this beautiful continent.

The conditions and culture in those Countries affected are so very different from the West that even if we do have the odd case of Ebola here I cannot see it spreading quite like it has over there.

Sensible precautions and not to panic are the key IMO.