Mark M:

dweste: In situations where there are a lot of people who are displaced from their homes, two things tend to go wrong. The first is that human fecal matter winds up getting into local water sources. People have diarrhea and they can't help polluting the water sources. If this gets bad, you wind up with outbreaks of cholera. Cholera kills people fast - esp. people who are run down due to exhaustion, dehydration, and hunger. Cholera shots are only partially effective. The best way to avoid cholera is to drink ONLY pure water, and to mix some oral rehydration salts (ORS). So it would be worthwhile to have the ingredients for ORS and the formula handy.

The second problem is that other communicable diseases can spread, due to the fact that you've got a lot of people living in very close proximity (colds/flu, diseases from ticks & fleas, etc.). So you have to decide how clean your local "refugee camp" really is ... before going there.

other Pete