Flood­ing is dev­as­tat­ing in every as­pect: from prop­er­ty and in­fra­struc­ture dam­age to loss of life and wider health im­pact. The health im­pact of dis­as­ters like flood­ing are com­plex and cas­cad­ing, and can im­pact any one per­son or pop­u­la­tion si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO), flood­ing or “ba­ha” can in­crease the preva­lence of com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases which can be wa­ter or vec­tor-borne.

WHO ex­plains that wa­ter-borne dis­eases such as ty­phoid fever, cholera, and lep­tospiro­sis are brought by wa­ter con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, the ma­jor risk fac­tor as­so­ci­at­ed with flood­ing. The in­ci­dents of vec­tor-borne dis­eases such as malar­ia, dengue, and yel­low fever, on the oth­er hand, in­creas­es due to stand­ing wa­ter that serves as breed­ing sites for mos­qui­toes.

• ↓Flood­ing in­creas­es the risk of these dis­eases and po­ten­tial out­breaks in pop­u­la­tions be­cause it can cause sewage over­flow as well as dam­age to wa­ter sup­ply and san­i­ta­tion fa­cil­i­ties.

• ↓Con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of drink­ing wa­ter can lead to ty­phoid fever, cholera and he­pati­tis A.

• ↓In ar­eas at risk of coastal flood­ing, there’s al­so the pos­si­bil­i­ty of salt-wa­ter in­tru­sion to drink­ing wa­ter as well as hy­per­ten­sion and eclamp­sia.

• ↓Once flood­wa­ters have re­ced­ed, stag­nant wa­ter left be­hind in gar­dens, parts of the home or even farm­ing lands can be­come a breed­ing ground for mos­qui­toes and lead to dis­eases like dengue or malar­ia.

What to do AF­TER Flood­ing with your Food

Do not eat any food that may have come in­to con­tact with flood or stormwa­ter. Dis­card:

• ↓Food with an un­usu­al odour, colour, or tex­ture.

• ↓Food in pack­ages that are not wa­ter­proof.

• ↓Food in card­board con­tain­ers, in­clud­ing juice/milk/ba­by for­mu­la box­es.

• ↓Food con­tain­ers with screw-caps, snap-lids, crimped caps, twist caps, flip tops, and snap tops.

• ↓Home-canned foods be­cause they can­not be dis­in­fect­ed.

• ↓Canned foods or food con­tain­ers that are bulging, opened, or dam­aged. Throw out cans or food con­tain­ers that spurt liq­uid or foam when you open them or con­tain food that is dis­coloured, mouldy, or smells bad. When it doubt, throw it out!

Men­tal health af­fect­ed

Men­tal health prob­lems, which can oc­cur lat­er, are of­ten over­looked and not as well stud­ied rel­a­tive to the im­me­di­ate health im­pacts caused by flood­ing. So far, it is known that the ex­pe­ri­ence of sur­viv­ing a flood­ing dis­as­ter can im­pact peo­ple af­ter the event and some­times for many years down the line.

The process of clean-up, re­cov­ery and re­build­ing is a con­sid­er­able source of stress. Anx­i­ety, de­pres­sion, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der or PTSD, psy­chosis and in­som­nia are some of the com­mon men­tal health prob­lems that come up in the af­ter­math of a flood­ing dis­as­ter.

In the UK, flood vic­tims were be­tween 4 to 8.7 times at risk of long-term men­tal health prob­lems com­pared to peo­ple who did not ex­pe­ri­ence flood­ing. In one case, rain be­came a trig­ger for a woman’s PTSD af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing flood­ing.

What is Lep­tospiro­sis?

Cas­es of lep­tospiro­sis can in­crease af­ter floods when peo­ple may have to wade through con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed wa­ter or use it for drink­ing or bathing. It is a bac­te­r­i­al dis­ease that oc­curs world­wide and can cause se­ri­ous ill­ness­es such as kid­ney or liv­er fail­ure, menin­gi­tis, dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing, and bleed­ing.

How do peo­ple get lep­tospiro­sis?

Peo­ple can get lep­tospiro­sis when they have con­tact with wa­ter or soil con­tain­ing urine or oth­er body flu­ids from in­fect­ed an­i­mals, if they di­rect­ly touch the urine from an in­fect­ed an­i­mal or if they con­sume food or wa­ter con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by urine.

The bac­te­ria can sur­vive for months in urine-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed wa­ter and soil. A va­ri­ety of an­i­mals can spread lep­tospiro­sis, in­clud­ing ro­dents, dogs, live­stock, and wildlife.

Dur­ing heavy rain, an­i­mal urine in the soil or on oth­er sur­faces can run in­to wa­ter sources con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing it. Streams and oth­er nat­ur­al wa­ter sources can al­so be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed.

How is lep­tospiro­sis treat­ed?

If you have symp­toms of lep­tospiro­sis, con­tact a doc­tor right away. If your doc­tor thinks you have lep­tospiro­sis, they will like­ly give you an­tibi­otics. Treat­ment is most ef­fec­tive when start­ed as soon as pos­si­ble.

Let’s Be PRE­PARED for a Dis­as­ter or Emer­gency

Pre­pare an Emer­gency Food Sup­ply

A dis­as­ter can dis­rupt the food sup­ply, so plan to have at least a 3-day sup­ply of food on hand. Keep foods that:

• Have a long stor­age life

• ↓Re­quire lit­tle or no cook­ing, wa­ter, or re­frig­er­a­tion, in case util­i­ties are dis­rupt­ed

• ↓Meet the needs of in­fants or oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers who are on spe­cial di­ets

• Meet pets’ needs

• ↓Are not very salty or spicy, as these foods in­crease the need for drink­ing wa­ter, which may be in short sup­ply

For a list of sug­gest­ed emer­gency food sup­plies vis­it https://www.ready.gov/food.

How To Store an Emer­gency Food Sup­ply

When stor­ing food:

• ↓Check the ex­pi­ra­tion dates on canned foods and dry mix­es. Home-canned food usu­al­ly needs to be thrown out af­ter a year.

• ↓Use and re­place food be­fore its ex­pi­ra­tion date.

• ↓Cer­tain stor­age con­di­tions can en­hance the shelf life of canned or dried foods. The ide­al lo­ca­tion is a cool, dry, dark place. The best tem­per­a­ture is 40° to 70°F.

• ↓Store foods away from ranges or re­frig­er­a­tor ex­hausts. Heat caus­es many foods to spoil more quick­ly.

• ↓Store food away from pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts, such as gaso­line, oil, paints, and sol­vents. Some food prod­ucts ab­sorb their smell.

• ↓Pro­tect food from ro­dents and in­sects. Items stored in box­es or in pa­per car­tons will keep longer if they are heav­i­ly wrapped or stored in wa­ter­proof, air­tight con­tain­ers.

• ↓Store food on shelves that will be safe­ly out of the way of flood­wa­ters.

Pre­pare an Emer­gency Wa­ter Sup­ply

• Store at least 1 gal­lon of wa­ter per day for each per­son and each pet. Con­sid­er stor­ing more wa­ter than this for hot cli­mates, for preg­nant women, and for peo­ple who are sick.

• ↓Store at least a 3-day sup­ply of wa­ter for each per­son and each pet.

• ↓Make sure to store your emer­gency wa­ter sup­ply where it will be as safe as pos­si­ble from flood­ing.

• ↓If your bot­tled wa­ter has an odour, do not drink or use it. In­stead, dis­pose of it, or if ap­plic­a­ble, call your bot­tled wa­ter provider to get a re­place­ment.

• ↓Ob­serve the ex­pi­ra­tion date for store-bought wa­ter; re­place oth­er stored wa­ter every 6 months.

• ↓Store a bot­tle of un­scent­ed liq­uid house­hold chlo­rine bleach to dis­in­fect your wa­ter and to use for gen­er­al clean­ing and san­i­tiz­ing. Try to store bleach in an area where the av­er­age tem­per­a­ture stays around 70°F (21°C). Be­cause the amount of ac­tive chlo­rine in bleach de­creas­es over time, con­sid­er re­plac­ing the bot­tle each year.

Ar­ti­cle Source:

https://www.cdc.gov/lep­tospiro­sis/ex­po­sure/hur­ri­canes-lep­tospiro­sis.html

https://www.food­safe­ty.gov/keep-food-safe/food-safe­ty-in-dis­as­ter-or-emer­gency