In the aftermath of a survival situation, particularly if the infrastructure has collapsed, there are certainly dangers lurking – literally around every corner.

Chief among them, however, is an invisible enemy, one that can in some cases turn an innocuous scrape or cut into a deadly battle; here is what to be on the lookout for!

Cholera

Cholera is a bacterial disease causing infection in the intestines, most often spread through dirty water.  A tell-tale symptom is excess amounts of watery diarrhea lasting for several days. Vomiting may also occur. The diarrhea can be so severe that people become dehydrated within a matter of hours. Symptoms generally appear 2-5 days after exposure. Fever is rare, and should cause suspicion of a secondary infection.

Cholera is spread through water and food contaminated with human feces. Insufficiently cooked crabs, shrimp, oysters and other shellfish, which have the

Cholera bacteria on their shells, is another common source.

The source of the contamination is typically other cholera sufferers when their untreated diarrheal discharge is allowed to get into waterways, groundwater or drinking water supplies. Drinking any infected water and eating any foods washed in the water, as well as shellfish living in the affected waterway, can cause a person to contract an infection. Cholera is rarely spread directly from person to person.

Rehydration is key to recovery. An electrolyte solution of 1 liter of boiled water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 6 teaspoons of sugar, and mashed banana for potassium can be used when commercially produced oral rehydration solutions are unavailable.

If people with cholera are treated quickly and properly, the mortality rate is less than 1%; however, with untreated cholera, the mortality rate rises to 50–60%.

For certain genetic strains of cholera, such as the one present during the 2010 epidemic in Haiti and the 2004 outbreak in India, death can occur within two hours of becoming ill.

Prevention isn’t difficult with proper sanitation and clean drinking water. Boiling or filtering water before drinking it or washing food in it will greatly reduce your chances of getting sick. Proper disposal of fecal matter, boiling and/or bleaching the bedding and clothing of sick people, and thorough hand washing of those who come in contact with sick people is the best way to prevent further spread.

Dysentery

Dysentery is an infection causing inflammation of the intestines and colon, brought about by bacteria, viruses, parasitic worms, and protozoa (single-celled microscopic living organisms).

Symptoms include frequent diarrhea with blood or mucus present, fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation.

Dysentery is spread through contaminated water, and person-to-person through lack of hygiene and sanitation. If an infected person touches a doorknob after using the bathroom without washing their hands, and transfers fecal matter to that knob, a healthy person who comes along and touches the doorknob and then eats without washing their hands will ingest the organism into their digestive tract.

Dysentery is treated with rehydration. If vomiting and diarrhea are so severe that the patient can’t take fluid orally, intravenous fluids should be given.

Access to clean water, proper hygiene, washing of hands after using the bathroom and before eating, thoroughly cooking foods, and washing fresh foods in clean water will help reduce chances of the disease spreading.

Epidemic Typhus

Epidemic typhus (also called “camp fever”, “jail fever”, “hospital fever”, “ship fever”, “famine fever”, “putrid fever”, “petechial fever”, “Epidemic louse-borne typhus,” and “louse-borne typhus”) is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters.

When lice feed on infected humans, the bacterium grows in the louse’s gut and is excreted in its feces. When an infected louse bites an uninfected human who then scratches the itchy bite, the disease is transmitted as the feces is rubbed into openings in the skin. In one to two weeks symptoms will begin to present themselves.

Symptoms include severe headache, a sustained high fever, cough, rash, severe muscle pain, chills, falling blood pressure, stupor, sensitivity to light, delirium and death. A rash begins on the chest about five days after the fever appears, and spreads to the trunk and extremities. A symptom common to all forms of typhus is a fever which may reach 39 °C (102 °F).

The infection is treated with antibiotics. Intravenous fluids and oxygen may be needed to stabilize the patient. The mortality rate is 10% to 60%, but is vastly lower (close to zero) if intracellular antibiotics such as tetracycline are used before 8 days. Chloramphenicol is also used.

MRSA

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is a contagious antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria which is potentially fatal. MRSA began as a hospital-acquired infection. Anyone confined to a hospital, prison, or nursing home, where patients with open wounds, invasive devices, and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of infection.

Cases of community-acquired strains of MRSA are on the rise, alarming doctors and healthcare professionals.

Prisons, military barracks, and homeless shelters can be crowded and confined, and poor hygiene practices may proliferate, thus putting inhabitants at increased risk of contracting MRSA. Cases of MRSA in such populations were first reported in the United States, and then in Canada. The earliest reports were made by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in US state prisons. Subsequent reports of a massive rise in skin and soft tissue infections were reported by the CDC in the Los Angeles County Jail system in 2001, and this has continued.

In the news media, hundreds of reports of MRSA outbreaks in prisons appeared between 2000 and 2008.

MRSA on the skin can often look like a spider bite. But if the redness spreads, there’s pain and warmth to the touch, if the sore fills with pus or begins draining fluids, and if fever is present, you should suspect a MRSA infection.

Small cuts that turn into a MRSA infection can spread to the joints, heart, lungs, brain, and other organs.

To avoid the spread of MRSA, cover your wounds with clean, dry bandages until they’re fully healed to avoid skin-to-skin contact with others. Be sure to wash your hands often to avoid contracting MRSA. Bathe regularly, especially after exercising, don’t share personal hygiene items, sanitize gym/sports equipment, and wear flip-flops in public showers.

You may have noticed that in just about every case, sanitary conditions and water supplies are key to controlling these diseases; that gives you a hint of how to go about ensuring they do not strike you or your group in a survival situation.

Another key is proper re-hydration and by “proper,” we mean getting fluids from a sanitary source – it does no good to re-hydrate if you are drinking from the same unsanitary source.

To learn about other communicable diseases that rear their heads in a survival situation and how to avoid / treat them, please visit The Prepper Project.