In a post-disaster scenario, medical supplies will be limited to what you have on hand, or what you can make. The risk of infections will be much greater than normal circumstances, the disaster itself could cause injuries, debris will make necessary movement dangerous, and clean water will be hard to come by. For this reason, it is important to store antibiotics, and to be able to make them in case your supply runs out or is destroyed by the disaster. The original antibiotic is penicillin, it is a mold that grows on bread and fruit. Here are directions on how you can turn your spoiling food into emergency survival medicine.
- It is important to know that this process will take several days at least, time that an infection could be reeking havoc on your body, for this reason, you should start the process as soon as disaster strikes so that you have penicillin on hand when you need it.
- Take some fruit (citrus will work, but cantaloupe has been found to work best) and cut it into small pieces.
- Place the fruit along with some moldy bread into a clean glass container.
- Place the container in a cool dark place and cover it.
- Check on the contents of the container regularly.
- If there is excess liquid forming at the bottom of the container this can be drained off and the container can be closed again and put back in place.
- After the fruit has been completely covered in the mold it can be removed.
- Select dry pieces of fruit, further dry them in the sun.
- The dry pieces of moldy fruit can be rubbed on wounds or bandages that will be used to cover wounds. If you are up for it, they could even be consumed.
As safe as penicillin usually is, some people do have allergies to penicillin that can be dangerous. Always be sure prior to use that you do not have penicillin allergies.
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