Aryana Libris

Author : The Remote, Austere, Wilderness and Third World Medicine Discussion Board Moderators
Title : Survival and austere medicine : An introduction Second Edition
Year : 2005

Link download : Survival_and_austere_medicine.zip

Medicine at the End of the World. “With no antibiotics there would be no treatment for bacterial infections; pneumonia or a simple cut could kill again, contagious diseases (including those sexually transmitted) would make a come back, and high mortality rates would be associated with any surgery. Poor hygiene and disrupted water supplies would lead to an increase in diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Without vaccines there would be a progressive return in infectious diseases such as polio, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, mumps, etc. especially among children. People suffering from chronic illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, or epilepsy would be severely affected with many dying (especially insulin-dependent diabetics). There would be no anaesthetic agents resulting in return to tortuous surgical procedures with the patient awake or if they were lucky drunk or stoned. The same would apply to painkillers; a broken leg would be agony, and dying of cancer would be distressing for the patient and their family. Without reliable oral contraceptives or condoms the pregnancy rate would rise and with it the maternal and neonatal death rates, women would die during pregnancy and delivery again, and premature babies would die. Women would still seek abortions, and without proper instruments or antibiotics death from septic abortion would be common again. In the absence of proper dental care teeth would rot, and painful extractions would have to be performed. What limited medical supplies available would have to be recycled, resulting in increasing risks of hepatitis and HIV infection.” ...