About the closest parallel to being evacuated for several days or longer would be those intrepid souls who hike the “Long trails” of our country like the Appalachian Trail (Georgia to Maine) or the Pacific Crest Trail (Mexico to Canada) among others. On the trail for months at a time, coming out only to pick up food and supplies every week or so, they really do live “off the grid”.
Several years ago, some nice folks at the University of Minnesota gave a health questionnaire to hikers finishing the Appalachian Trail asking about their health during the long trek. Some of the problems they had, such as foot problems, don’t apply to a survival situation, but one problem both applies and was nearly universal among long distance hikers-diarrhea. Sometimes bad enough that medical attention needed to be sought. And what, upon further review, was the #1 cause of this problem? Not spoiled food, not impure water, not even germs from kissing a cute fellow hiker. No, the majority of these cases came from “fecal contamination”. In other words, using the bathroom, getting poo on your hands, and not washing, or washing insufficiently, afterwards. Eww. Such is the brutal reality of life away from running water.
Now like backpackers, people in emergency situations are dealing with limited supplies of water. So how do you avoid “fecal contamination” without using a gallon of hot soapy water like you do at home? Here are a few ideas:
-No-rinse soap. It’s long been used to care for invalids who can’t bathe, and is available in drugstores, or online. If you really want to go overboard, you can buy gallon jugs of it on Amazon.
-Baby wipes. Think about it, what are you usually wiping off baby with these? The same thing you are trying to wipe off your hands. Not only do they moisturize, they disinfect.
-Hand sanitizer. I bring a few travel size bottles on any camping trip. Often I’ll wipe my hands with baby wipes, and then smear on a dollop of sanitizer, which kills any nasties left behind.
-If someone is doing the cooking, use some of that supply of water to wash up, using soap and a cloth. If your hands are dirty you are only risking yourself, if the cooks hands are dirty, everyone they serve is in jeopardy.
-Along the same lines of minimizing risk, if a bag of food is being shared (trail mix, beef jerky, etc.), pour it into waiting hands or individual containers rather than risking cross contamination with everyone’s dirty mitts rummaging around the bag trying to get the most cashews.
It’s not a subject we like to dwell on, but hygiene in an emergency is critical to staying healthy, especially since medical help is likely nonexistent or dealing with serious injuries. Think clean thoughts and clean hands.