How does a person find out if all their immunizations are up to date.
Like I know that a person will never be protected from the next great unknown plague, but just being immune from the ones that exist now would be good, right?
Especially considering that if there is a large scale emergency refuge centers are likely to be crowded places and ideal for disease transmission, and that sanitation might be less than ideal too.

It would be a shame to survive a disaster and die 3 weeks later of some dumb refugee herd diseases like the flue or typhoid fever...

Talk to your doctor if you have one you always go to. They should have a record of your shots. If traveling out of the country, check with your State Department regarding what immunizations you should have for the area you are traveling to. ESPECIALLY if you are leaving North America.

If you are traveling to certain continents, there are specific immunizations that are needed, and some react with others. You need someone who is then knowledgeable with the area and said drugs. Others are a battery of shots over a period of time. As such, start asking questions well in advance of any known travels.

If you are properly equipped to survive, staying at an emergency refugee center is not needed....period.

What about your elderly parents? Are you going to force them out of the heated shelter so they can huddle around your camp fire? On oxygen?

I don't see mention of campfire in my post so don't misconstrue my words in an attempt to validate your words. If you have proper planning in place, there are other places to stay then a shelter. Depending on the nature of the event, these options include other families, friends houses etc away from the immediate area.

If someone has elderly parents on oxygen and a shelter is their first option, then these people have failed to plan in a big way.

Sorry, who said anything about it being a first option? It might be you who are failing to plan by not even considering that you may end up in a shelter.

Nishnabotna, Sherpadog is into serious camping and would likely be ready to make his own shelter arrangements.

Sherpadog, Nishnabotna has a good point about the elderly, the infirm and the possibility of having to rely on a shelter in some cases, possibly even for you.

Even if you are not in a refugee center you might still be dealing with populations that are.
Even people who tried to isolate themselves got sick and died during the 1918 influenza outbreaks.
The flu was the most recent real pandemic we have a good record of.
The Flu killed an awful lot of soldiers.

Thank you Nighthiker.
This
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5753-Immunization.pdf
was exactly what I was looking for.

Reminds me of a story I read in this morning's news about Al-Queda in Algeria goofing around with a biological agent and ended up killing 40 or so of themselves. Speculation was it was the Bubonic plague, but methinks it was something else...

If you're unable to find out anything definitive, go and get a tetanus booster and the assorted Hepatitis vaccines. So far as I know, you can't hurt yourself by doing so and you'll at least have the most common things covered.

JohnE

Bubonic plague still exists in the wild. It just does not seem to infect us as badly as it once did. Apparently it had more to fo with the dying off of the type of rat (black) that it infested and the replacement of the black rat population by the Norwegian brown rat.


The Southwestern States still have occasional cases of it.

Emed on it:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/829233-overview

CDC on it:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00048352.htm