Venezuela Faces the Return of Forgotten Diseases

This report was originally published by J. G. Martinez D. at The Organic Prepper

Dear fellows, I want to tell a little story of this last week.

My son had a rash in his little armpits and other parts. So his mom took him to the doctor, within walking distance from our subdivision (our SUV is still busted). After the subsequent blood test (according to my wife it was a real spectacle. He is a strong kid and a task force between my wife, the doctor and a nurse was needed to get the blood sample…well at least we know he is able to defend himself.) The lab result (freaking expensive because the reactants are scarce) was salmonella.

I started to worry a lot, as it is logical. That was Thursday. I got immediately into fast-forward mode, and found the money, while I was extremely concerned about the availability of the needed antibiotics. My wife woke up early, and with a neighbor in his car went with the kiddo to the pharmacy. After visiting two pharmacies with negative results, they headed up to a state-owned pharmacy next to the state hospital, controlled by Cubans or party members, who betray the hospital personnel that dares to report malnutrition deaths or similar events. This is happening.

She was finally able to find the medicines on Saturday morning, at a really inflated price, but the neighbor works for an official government, with a flash of his badge she could buy them without the employees giving it a second look.

I emailed a copy of the doctor’s report to Daisy, so she can confirm my history for those who feel the need to do so.

To me, this was a major achievement under the actual circumstances. I used some of the money from your donations, to exchange it for the needed Bolivares to buy the medications, but the important thing to note here is that they were found. And that is not easy in this country.

Forgotten diseases are returning

Recent reports from these last few days have been, for someone who understands the importance of the endemic diseases that had been under control, spreading quickly.

I am talking about serious stuff: Tuberculosis, Diptheria, Leishmaniasis. There have been adults and children who died because of these things. The diseases themselves, under normal conditions can be healed. But without the appropriate medications and proper nutrition, they become deadly.

Leishmaniasis

One of the worst endemic diseases that has been reported (this information arrived via social networking from confirmed, known sources) is Leishmaniasis. This is a parasite to which you should pay a lot of attention. With the lack of proper balanced feeding, a person’s natural defenses get lower, and it is much easier for them to get sick.

Traditionally there were programs all over the country to fumigate and keep the vectors under control. However, the last fumigation was a long time ago and this allowed the vectors to spread themselves again, reaching densely populated areas, and now without any modern medication to contain it.

Rodents, canines, are affected too. The main transmission vector is the mosquito, and their first manifestation is a skin lesion in the place of the bite. There are several forms of the disease, and most of them are deadly. This is a disease associated with the malnourishment, population displacement, poor living conditions, weak immune systems, and a general lack of resources. This is the exact scenario we have been living through and the description of an SHTF situation. It affects the liver and has permanent consequences if not treated properly.

Ehrlichiosis

Another disease we have present in our area is the Ehrlichiosis, a tropical variation of Lyme disease. Fortunately, we could find the antibiotics for this as well, but of course at incredible prices. Thankfully with a 2^nd income, it could be obtained. My wife got better after weeks of feeling sick once we knew what it was.

In a funny side note, we had to go to a veterinary lab, as it was the only one in town that was able to do such testing. This gave me floor for a LOT of imaginative, creative jokes to her. Lol.

We used the recipes to buy some extra blisters packs of medication, just in case, for our medicine box will be donated once the family can come with me.

Tuberculosis

Another disease that had an incredible increase is tuberculosis. It is known that tuberculosis is linked to malnutrition (source) and it is becoming increasingly widespread in Venezuela. As it is more or less known,  improper nutrition is the main cause of this once-eradicated sickness in Venezuela. The cases were very few, and widely spread, mainly among drug addicts, homeless people, or even patients of psychiatric hospitals. This is a bacteria, and the infection damage is located especially in lungs.

A weakened immune system makes it easy for the disease to take hold. There are a lot of ways to prevent our defenses from getting too low, but proper nutrition is the best prevention. Whole foods, of course, provide more leverage to our immune system than processed foods.

Mosquito-transmitted diseases

Another important and significant increase has been in the mosquito-transmitted diseases. With the main insecticides factories financially strangled, their production is scarce, and the well-known government mafia takes over whatever they can.

Finding a can of insecticide is not easy. This is another item that should be stockpiled. It is not going to lose efficiency. I could afford to buy a fumigation machine, able to provide a clouding of droplets with a very small size, the needed size to float in the air for hours (I don´t remember how many microns, I think about 0.5 or so). It is useful for house fumigation as well as greenhouse or crops, despite being electrical. It does not use a heating element, so it is much more simple to maintain and fix, and this allows to use a wider variety of insecticides that do not need to be burned to remain as a cloud for keeping their effectiveness.

Salmonella

Our recent experience with salmonella last week opened our eyes to how bad sanitation conditions have become. Of course, this is to be expected. There are no cleaning products at affordable prices, and therefore the hygiene decreases significantly, and salmonella is a disease very closely linked to hygiene.

According to my research for this article, salmonella can be transmitted by infected hens, even before teggshellell is formed, and this seemed to us something very likely because the chicken farmers can’t afford the mandatory vaccines or medications for the animals.

Another salmonella infection source is raw poultry. We noticed that in the place we buy our fresh poultry and cheese, these are stored in the same freezer. This is not what we could call ideally sanitary, but it is our first time facing such an illness.

According to our doctor, that same day there were 2 other cases of salmonella before our son. This is alarming, to me. Never had seen even one case, except very rare instances, and suddenly three persons in a row in a doctor’s office?

This is highly suspicious, at a minimum.

What can we do given that we are not regular people but preppers?

Let’s see.

My first thought is, given that the readers are spread worldwide, is research what diseases are endemic to your area. Statiscally speaking, the probability of picking up a disease that is not typical of your region should be low.

Once the hazard your group maybe exposed to is identified, then proceed with the neutralization measures by finding out which medications would be needed if the normal supply is no longer available.

Some prepper-friendly doctor could extend the needed prescriptions, and your stashed medicines would be one of the stuff that should be already in your secluded BOL, under the proper conditions. [Alternatively, if you can’t get those, look for herbal remedies you can create yourself – this book is a reference every prepper should own ~ Daisy]

Given what we have experienced, I would not try to save money on this issue. It will be worth every penny if you need it. Oh, and I don’t work or have any relationship with any medical company other than swallowing their stuff from time to time if needed.

This said, I would calculate, depending on the medical history of the family (for example, urinary infections, bacterial stomach infections like amoebas in my case) and the endemic disease information, then go about stockpiling two complete treatments a year, for each family member.

Other possible treatments could be those for botulism. Some antidote against this toxin should be stockpiled. This is very serious, and the probability of appearing is not because it is endemic, but because of things like decomposing canned food.

Skin burn ointments and other common medications would be needed, too. Our scarcity began about 4 years ago, but mostly because of the inflation. If you have the money, you can find anything you need, even under these conditions.

Therefore, I strongly suggest you find a good, suitable way, optimized for your particular conditions to store wealth.

This is worst case scenario and you may adjust it to your own medical knowledge and location. It would be great to receive comments from people in the know.

Thank you.

I give special thanks to those who have prayed for my family, because your prayers, my fellow preppers, really worked.

I don´t have words to describe how grateful I am for all of you.

We faced this issue, came through the other side almost unharmed, knowing this could have become serious if the medicine were not found, and I am sure your prayers for us were heard…

I don’t have words to thank you. God Bless you all, people!

Jose

About the Author

Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has a small 4 members family, plus two cats and a dog. An old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela. If you’d like to donate to help Jose get his family out of Venezuela, you can do so here: paypal.me/JoseM151

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Venezuelan COPS Kidnapped Pro Athlete’s Elderly Mom and Held Her For Ransom…and This ISN’T Unusual

This report was originally published by J.G. Martinez D at The Organic Prepper

Our state has failed in many ways. There is no security, there is no a food production system, and the economy collapsed a long time ago. Under these conditions, anyone with the smallest bit of power will do everything they can to keep their life quality. Stealing medicines in the shipments in Customs, openly stealing from law-abiding citizens, taking their cellphones, or anything that could be exchanged for some food, alcohol, or other stuff. This is the current situation here, and I am not sweetening anything.

Some professional athletes come from poor barrios, like El Gato Galarraga, great Omar Vizquel, basketball player Gabriel Estaba, and many from other countries, too. The athletes leave it all behind, but often, their elders refuse to leave their house, friends, and the lifestyle they have enjoyed, They don’t want to move to some other place and leave everything and everyone behind. It makes sense – it’s the place they have called home an entire life. This being said, we have to mention that most of the policemen, military, and other organizations come as well from humble neighborhoods

You may have heard that recently in Venezuela, the mother of Pittsburg Pirate’s baseball player Elías Díaz, was kidnapped.

This old lady was forced to get into an SUV by four armed men, in broad daylight, at 9 AM. I mean, FOUR trained grown-up men to kidnap a granny, is that not a little bit of overkill?

Criminals are getting increasingly organized and disciplined

I have noticed that criminals are getting increasingly organized and disciplined. They roam in numbers. They are packs. They surround their prey. Some of them will get close to engage with their victim while another one is hidden nearby. Any suspicious move, and our hero is history. The lone attacker hardly exists any longer.

Even the street robbers now use a team: two on each motorcycle. They choose their victim, usually a shiny, luxury Japanese SUV, and chase it. The guy in the backseat is packing heat, and the driver usually has a backup. Their modus operandi is increasingly going blitzkrieg style: they move fast, and they take no  cowpie from anyone. They are not afraid to shoot an unarmed person because the chance of getting away unharmed and unpunished is about 90%.

In a devastated economy, they know some people earns lots of money in foreign currency. This is a gold mine for the criminal organizations. So for the professional athletes, these guys’ faces are all over the international TV´s sport channels. This is enough motivation for some greedy, dirty personnel to decide to go grandmother´s hunting, as sad as it sounds. And let´s be honest, people have commited crimes for much less than these morons expected to get out of Elias’s pockets. The guy is famous.

This has been like this for quite some time; but the trend, with the rip of the social fabric, has just spiked up.  This old lady used to sit in front of her house, to chat with her friends and neighbors, in the fresh breeze of the first hours of the evening. An easy target for someone with training, don’t you think?

And that’s the scariest part about this crime…

We have talked before about how it is predictable that cops WILL go rogue when the SHTF.

And that is what is so scary about Elias’s mom’s kidnapping. These guys were policemen. With a gun and a license provided by the State to protect grannies, kids, moms, and dads. There were four of them, and two civillians.

Once the lady was sitting on her front porch, the neighbor, who obviously was being paid to watch her, called the officers’ team. There were 3 other thugs involved, and it is believed that they were the team that looked after the granny in the abandoned house she was kept in.

They kept the old lady in a far away abandoned country cottage. She had just an electric fan and a mattress. No clean clothing, no nightdress for sleeping comfort. Two meals a day for a lady over 70 years old. The morality and respect for elders of this gang just went down the toilet.

Before the granny was rescued, 5 officers of the “Bolivarian” police of the Zulia state were under detention, along with the neighbor. These rogue officers have been given a choice: the wall, or the rope.

It is important to understand this: we have a separated task force, a scientific police, just like your CSI. It is called the CICPC, and they are professionals who are highly trained overseas (in the USA and Europe). In many cases, they are trustworthy and straight officers. Rebel pilot Oscar Perez, illegally killed by armed militias last January because of rebellion against the state, was a member of this task force. This force is much better trained and equipped than the State Police, and they have, among all the institutions, the best reputation, particularly after a group them took over a NGs post, took their weapons but respected their lives and integrity. They did not even shoot one single bullet and took 15 NGs prisoners. The State Police and the NG are two of the dirtiest organizations in the entire country.

A few lessons from this event

As awful as this is, there are a few things you can learn from the situation.

• First lesson: Don’t allow anyone to discover your real financial status. Go grey.


• Second lesson: Don’t get used to routines. Do you have bowling nights on Thursday? Go on another night, for example.


• Third lesson: Give your loved ones some means to be tracked. A small GPS locator device with a $10 prepaid chip inside Granny’s bra would have saved a lot of suffering and grey hair for poor Elias and his mom. And money, because that rescue perhaps needed some oil to get some nuts loose first, trust me.


• Fourth lesson: Just because they are police officers doesn’t mean they are trustworthy.

It is not something that can only happen in Venezuela. I hope that some readers have some tours in Middle East and can bear witness that this is something that happens in other countries too, and not just to grannies, but to other innocent and defenseless members of the families. In 2011 the baseball player Wilson Ramos (Washington Nationals) was kidnapped too.

Why do these kinds of things happen?

Let’s see.

The government forbids access to foreign currency, destroyed our own currency and destroyed our economy. There are a lot of bad guys out there willing to do whatever they think is safe for them to get their paws in someone else’s pocket.

The crime correctional system has become communist re-education camps. They will sing the national anthem first thing in the morning, will be forced to adore Hugo’s posters and to yell phrasing until their minds split open, and once broken they will become members of the “revolution”. I just saw this past week some videos from inside one of such jails. Shaved heads and yellow uniforms, all lined up in a patio jail. Freaking scary, if you ask me.

I have been thinking about this stuff a lot (as I am not a criminal and I can’t explain to myself how they think to be able to behave like that). The simplest answer I see for this is that they commit crimes because they can. Because they won’t be punished, and they know the odds are in their favor. This seems to be the main reason.

Once the system is broken, it’s only a matter of time

Once the system gets broken the entire functionality is lost. Humans are humans, no matter where you are. There is a lot of thugs that are tied only by very thin ropes of fear. Once the system gets those ties loose in some way…then you have a problem, as a citizen. A very big one.

There are thugs kidnapping small children under 10 years old at gunpoint from some private, expensive schools in our hometown. These are not some ambassador’s kids, they are kids belonging to what once was normal people with a bit more wealth than the common citizen. I know, things like this have happened in some other countries with some degree of frequency. I know this is seen in Argentina as well. On an alarming note, we can mention the player Javier Betancourt was shot in an arm last November (2017), in a gunpoint assault.

In this country, there have been many instances where some dirty officers have been the main characters, planners, and executors of Hollywood style robberies. In the 90s a small airplane carrying a gold batch was shot with UZIs by two guys in motorcycles who intercepted the plane in the airport fieldstrip. These were former special operations policemen. The pilot and copilot were killed.

There are a lot of bad things to expect if the major infrastructure of the state crumbles and falls apart. I know it. I have seen it, and going grey perhaps has saved my  backside a couple of times. I used to ride a nice, shiny classic motorcycle, and after a while I started to use my bicycle. It is not exactly much safer; but for taking my son to school it was indeed better. In this peak traffic time, minutes before I arrived at the school in a busy crossroads, two gangsters took some poor guy’s motorcycle at gunpoint. The school guard told me to use other vehicle or walk to pick up my kid, and not to use the motorcycle for a few days.

So I became unpredictable when I was riding the big bike. Sometimes I would speed down an avenue to go for gas in a far away gas station, and would make an entirely unexpected U-turn to speed and come back home using some roads with less traffic. These are the kinds of things that prevent you being from being targeted.

Some officers are good, but many are not.

I know some officers still keep their integrity. I would be unfair without acknowledging this to them. But in our instance the crisis has been way too deep, has lasted way too long already, and this behavior is what would be normal when everything starts to be scarce. For many people, officers, NGs or not, the only way left to make a living is asking for assistance, stealing in the open, or renting their handguns (yes, this happens here, very very often). These officers are even involved even with drug dealing, according to some reports.

They will make whatever is needed, and they won´t be punished. People won´t file a “claim” nor will they use some other civillian right, because this is no longer possible.

It is sad, but this is the status quo now.

My country is a wonderful place, with some of the most remarkable people, now spread in 10 countries. Those who had to stay have become stuck in a harsh situation because of the misbehavior of a criminal mafia that calls itself a government.

We are peaceful people. We have had really bad times, and most of the citizens are not gun friendly. Or they were not, perhaps that is going to change now.

Nothing is permanent, and I am sure we will go through the other side much wiser and much stronger.

Thank you.

I do my best to write for you and document everything I have been going through, so you can learn from this field experience. I want to give thanks to those of you who have sent assistance, with all my heart, every cent counts when the clock is ticking. [Note from Daisy: If you’d like to donate to help Jose get his family out of Venezuela, you can do so here: paypal.me/JoseM151]

Stay safe people, and may God bless us all.

About the Author

Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has a small 4 members family, plus two cats and a dog. An old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela.