[GrizzlyetteAdams]

Home care for patients with suspected novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection presenting with mild symptoms and management of contacts

https://www.who.int/publications-de...with-mild-symptoms-and-management-of-contacts


Clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection when novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection is suspected

https://www.who.int/publications-de...vel-coronavirus-(ncov)-infection-is-suspected

 

[GrayFoal]

Thanks for starting this thread. I was just getting ready to post some questions about home care. We're setting up a spare bedroom to care for at least two people, in anticipation of the hospitals filling up. I hope to God we don't both get sick at the same time as we have dogs to care for which is going to complicate things considerably if we're both bedridden and isolated.

I have ZERO experience doing anything like this so I want to compare notes with you guys. I read this Lancet article to get an idea of what patients go through.

The spare bedroom is a little room that is usually a home office. It has one door to an interior hallway and another to the backyard. We sealed off the HVAC vent and we're going to try to keep that interior door closed and make the room as self-contained as possible. We don't have a clothes washer so we're using old linens and clothes that can be thrown away.

So far in the room we have two cots, each with its own night stand, trash can, and small bookcase. Each nightstand has a lamp, hand sanitizer, a clock with timer/alarms (for reminders of when to take meds), kleenex, thermometer, pulse oximeter, flameless candles (in case of a power outage), baby wipes, hand lotion, ear plugs and an eye mask for sleeping, oral rehydration packets, cough drops, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, lip balm, Robitussin, and Vicks Vaporub. Edit: and a vomit bucket (small plastic trash can from the Dollar Store) with liner.

Each bookcase has drinking water, a tea kettle, disposable cups/bowls/cutlery, herbal teas, snacks, vitamins, books, notebooks and pens, toothbrush/toothpaste/mouth wash.

The closet has more food, extra linens, several changes of clothes, extra batteries, trash can liners, paper towels, a HEPA filter, drinking water, distilled water (for the humidifier), disinfectant wipes and sprays, books, etc.

Also in the room are handheld radios (to communicate with the rest of the house without opening the interior door), a hygrometer, HEPA air cleaner, humidifier, AM/FM radio, camp toilet/tent and supplies, and a wall calendar.

The HEPA cleaner and humidifier are older spare ones that I don't mind throwing away. Most of the rest of the items came from Craigslist or thrift stores and can be thrown away once this has passed.

What are we supposed to do with biohazardous waste in the meantime? There's a large communal dumpster in the alley behind our house that we normally use for household trash but we're not going anywhere near it.

 

[Optimist]

Nice planning, GrayFoal. Hope you never have to test it, but the HEPA setup sounds like a nice touch. As to waste materials, they were usually burned back in the days of my youth, and most local hospitals had a big incinerator built into the place. These days, I'd have to check locally what the options are. I still live rural though, so mine will get burned.

 

[GrizzlyetteAdams]

Biohazards will be dangerous if there is no way to safely dispose of them. If your community does not have a plan in place for disposing of biohazardous materials generated by home care of the 2019-nCoV Wuhan virus, you may want to consider setting up your own "mini-incinerator" on your property (or what us country folks call a burn barrel).

If you don't live in the country and live in a place where burning is likely to be a problem, do your burning late at night. And make sure you have a grate over the top to act as a "spark arrester." as shown in some of the pictures in these links.



Here are some burn barrel ideas (and useful tips in each link):



Easy Efficient Burn Barrel by cyberpigue

https://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-efficient-burn-barrel/



Repurposed washing machine drum burner

(Instead of welding fancy legs on this one, you could set this on concrete blocks)

https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Backyard-Fire-Pit/



Good old basics

https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/make-burn-barrel/

https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-a-burn-barrel/



If you have money to burn, here you go!

https://www.drpower.com/Power-Equipment/BurnCage/BurnCage-(Original)/p/000000000000314490

 

[neiowa]

Biohazards will be dangerous if there is no way to safely dispose of it. If your community does not have a plan in place for disposing of biohazardous materials generated by home care of the 2019-nCoV Wuhan virus, you may want to consider setting up your own "mini-incinerator" on your property (or what us country folks call a burn barrel).

If you don't live in the country and live in a place where burning is likely to be a problem, do your burning late at night. And make sure you have a grate over the top to act as a "spark arrester." as shown in some of the pictures in these links.

Good item I forget many places this is unknown today. Steel barrels just rust out quickly.

Mine burner is a 3ft high ring of concrete rubble. Broken sidewalk chunks approx. 4"x6" arranged in a 3ft OD circle and about 12 or so high. Every few years I moved/restack a few feet over and clean up the slag from the old spot. Works well as lets plenty of air into the fire.

 

[Optimist]

A piece of concrete culvert works pretty well as an impromptu incinerator too, and chicken wire (2 layers) for a spark arrestor will handle things unless you have a really dry period. The chicken wire has to be checked and replaced fairly often in regular use.