Bites and Scratches in a Disaster: Which Ones Need Antibiotics

Bites and Scratches in a Disaster: Which Ones Need Antibiotics

Animals in a Disaster Series: Part 1 of 2
By the Jase Medical Team

Three days after the storm, the animal injuries start showing up.

A cat got loose during the evacuation and bit someone’s hand when they tried to grab it. A neighbor’s dog, frightened by the noise and crowded shelter, snapped when someone cornered it. Someone else scraped their palm while clearing debris from standing water.

When normal healthcare is available, the next steps are fairly straightforward: clean the wound, decide whether it needs additional treatment, and watch it closely.

After a disaster, that last part can get complicated.

The clinic may be closed. Roads may be blocked. Cell service may be unreliable. Getting a wound checked again tomorrow or the next day may not be as easy as it normally would be.

That’s why a bite is one of those injuries where what you do in the first hour can matter more than what you have in the medicine cabinet.

And the first step isn’t an antibiotic.

It’s water.

First: Wash the Bite or Scratch Thoroughly

If an animal bites or scratches you, clean the wound right away.

Use soap and plenty of running water. If you’re dealing with disrupted utilities after a disaster, use clean, potable water.

Don’t give it a quick rinse and move on. Thoroughly washing the area helps physically remove saliva, dirt, and bacteria introduced into the wound.

This matters especially with animal bites because what looks small on the surface may not tell you much about what happened underneath.

Cat bites are a good example. Their teeth can create narrow punctures that push bacteria deeper into tissue even when the wound itself doesn’t look dramatic.

So whether you’re at home, evacuating, or staying in a shelter:

Wash first. Wash thoroughly. Wash right away.

Which Animal Bites Need Medical Attention?

Not every scratch requires an antibiotic.

But certain wounds deserve a lower threshold for getting medical care—especially when you know it may be difficult to have the wound rechecked later.

Pay particular attention to:

  • Bites to the hand
  • Deep puncture wounds
  • Wounds near a joint
  • Wounds exposed to floodwater
  • Increasing redness, warmth, swelling, or pain
  • Pus or cloudy drainage
  • Redness spreading away from the wound
  • Red streaking up an arm or leg
  • Fever or feeling increasingly unwell

If those signs appear, the best next step isn’t guessing which medication in your emergency supplies might work.

It’s reaching a qualified medical professional as soon as you can.

That’s especially important after a disaster, when the ability to simply “check it again in 48 hours” may not exist.

Why the Hand Deserves Extra Attention

A bite on your hand may look relatively minor.

Its location makes it more concerning.

Your hands pack tendons, joints, bones, and other important structures into a small space. A puncture that introduces bacteria into those deeper structures can become more complicated than a similar-looking wound elsewhere.

That doesn’t mean every hand bite is an emergency.

It does mean a bite to the hand is worth getting evaluated rather than assuming a small wound means a small problem.

And if you know access to healthcare may become more difficult over the next several days, mention that when you speak with the clinician evaluating you.

The wound hasn’t necessarily changed.

The safety net has.

Floodwater Changes the Wound

Maybe an animal wasn’t involved at all.

You’re clearing branches after a hurricane, catch your hand on a piece of debris, and the open wound goes straight into standing floodwater.

That’s useful information for a clinician.

Floodwater can contain sewage, bacteria, chemicals, debris, and other contaminants. A wound exposed to it isn’t necessarily the same clinical situation as a clean cut that happened inside your house.

If you’re evaluated, tell the clinician specifically that the wound was exposed to floodwater.

Don’t just say, “I cut my hand.”

The environment surrounding the injury matters.

Every Animal Bite Comes With Two More Questions

Whether or not the wound eventually needs antibiotics, there are two other questions you shouldn’t forget:

What about rabies?

What about tetanus?

1. Does This Animal Raise a Rabies Concern?

Rabies decisions depend heavily on what animal caused the exposure and whether that animal can be located.

That’s why, after cleaning the wound, write down what you know.

Was it your neighbor’s dog? A stray cat? A raccoon? A fox? Was there a bat in the room? Can the animal be found again?

Don’t try to determine on your own whether you need rabies post-exposure treatment. Contact a healthcare professional or public health authority who can evaluate the specific exposure.

And here’s an especially important point after a disaster:

Don’t assume you’re “too late” to ask about rabies because several days have passed.

If roads were blocked and you couldn’t reach care immediately, still bring it up when you can. Rabies post-exposure decisions should be made with medical or public health professionals rather than abandoned because you think you’ve missed a window.

2. Are You Up to Date on Tetanus?

Tetanus is another reason the circumstances of the wound matter.

After a storm, people are moving branches, handling damaged metal, clearing wreckage, walking through debris, and sustaining punctures and dirty wounds they wouldn’t normally encounter.

If you have a bite, puncture, or contaminated wound, tell the clinician when you last received a tetanus-containing vaccine—or tell them if you don’t know.

Don’t assume the risk comes specifically from floodwater or from something being “rusty.”

The wound itself and how it happened are what matter.

Don’t Let the Medicine Cabinet Make the Decision

It can be tempting after a disaster to look at an animal bite, see an antibiotic in your emergency supplies, and think:

I have this. Maybe I should take it just in case.

That’s not the decision we want you making on your own.

Whether a bite needs antibiotics depends on factors including where it is, how deep it is, whether infection is already developing, your health history, and what contaminated the wound.

And antibiotics aren’t the only decision.

A wound may need professional cleaning or evaluation of deeper structures. A bite may raise a rabies question. A dirty wound may change the tetanus conversation.

Having medication available doesn’t answer any of those questions.

Clinical judgment does.

The First-Hour Plan Is Simple

You don’t need to memorize every organism associated with animal bites or every guideline for antibiotic prophylaxis.

Remember this instead:

Clean it. Look at where it is and how deep it went. Ask about rabies. Ask about tetanus.

And if it’s a hand bite, a deep puncture, a wound that entered floodwater, or a wound developing spreading redness, drainage, fever, or increasing pain, make getting medical guidance a priority.

At Jase Medical, we’re a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation: helping people think through the medical layer of emergencies before normal systems become difficult to reach.

We’re not a replacement for primary care.

We’re the clinicians who would rather you know what matters before the road is closed, the clinic is unavailable, and you’re staring at a wound wondering whether it can wait.

Because with an animal bite, what you do in the first hour may matter more than what you have in the cabinet.

Next in the Animals in a Disaster Series: Stings After a Disaster: When It’s an Allergic Reaction—and When You Need Epinephrine.


This article was prepared by the Jase Medical content team for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Prescription requirements, emergency dispensing rules, insurance coverage, and controlled-substance regulations vary by medication, jurisdiction, and individual circumstances. Consult a licensed healthcare provider or pharmacist regarding your specific medications.

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Psychiatric Medications Need a Different Emergency Plan

Psychiatric Medications Need a Different Emergency Plan

Part 2 of a two-part series on medication readiness during a disruption

By the Jase Medical Team

In Part 1 of this series, we asked a question most people have never considered: If you suddenly couldn’t access your regular medications, which ones would be most important not to interrupt?

The takeaway was simple: your prescriptions aren’t interchangeable. Rather than trying to rank them yourself during an emergency, ask your healthcare team ahead of time which medications should receive the most urgent attention and add that information to your written medication list.

But there’s one category that doesn’t fit neatly into that ranking: psychiatric medications.

With certain psychiatric medications, losing access isn’t the only consideration. How treatment is resumed after an interruption can matter too. Others carry specific concerns if they’re stopped abruptly or if the conditions around you—such as illness, heat, or dehydration—change.

That means simply knowing where a psychiatric medication falls on your priority list may not be enough.

You need to know the plan for an interruption—and what happens afterward.

The Gap in Most Emergency Plans

Disaster planning tends to separate physical health and mental health into two different conversations.

Medication continuity guidance often focuses on chronic prescriptions people may need replaced after an evacuation, such as medications for heart disease, diabetes, thyroid conditions, and other ongoing medical needs. Mental health preparedness, meanwhile, tends to focus on what a disaster can do to someone’s emotional and psychological well-being: stress, anxiety, trauma, crisis support, and recovery.

Both matter. But there’s a patient who can fall directly between those two conversations: the person who was already taking a psychiatric medication before the disruption began.

Their emergency plan needs to account for that medication too.

Why Psychiatric Medications Need Their Own Plan

Psychiatric medications don’t all behave the same way, so this isn’t a medication-by-medication guide. But a few examples show why this category deserves more deliberate planning.

Clozapine is one of the clearest. An interruption isn’t only about missing the medication; how it is restarted can carry its own clinical considerations. Benzodiazepines present another concern: for someone who is physically dependent on one, abruptly stopping can cause serious withdrawal, including seizures or delirium. Lithium illustrates a different kind of problem, because dehydration and changes in fluid balance can increase the risk of toxicity even when someone hasn’t intentionally changed how they’re taking it.

These examples aren’t instructions for what to do with any particular medication. They’re the reason the instructions need to come from your own prescriber before an emergency happens.

The takeaway isn’t to memorize how each psychiatric medication behaves. It’s to understand that “I’ll just restart it when I get more” may not be an appropriate plan.

Ask Before Anything Happens

There is one useful preparedness question to bring to your psychiatrist, primary care provider, or other prescriber:

“If I can’t fill this medication for several days, what do you want me to do?”

You aren’t asking for permission to change your medication on your own or creating a DIY dosing plan. You’re asking your prescriber to tell you, in advance, what you should do if a disruption affects access.

Then write the answer somewhere you’ll actually find it.

Keep it with your current medication list, along with the medication name, dose, prescriber, pharmacy, allergies, and important treatment information. If a spouse, parent, adult child, or other trusted person helps with your healthcare, make sure they know where that information is too.

NAMI’s Portable Treatment Record is one resource designed to help individuals and families keep important mental health treatment information organized and accessible.

Make Sure the Information Can Leave With You

Having the plan written down only helps if you can access it when normal life is disrupted.

Research examining medication loss during disasters found that people who had prepared an emergency bag were 5.7 times more likely to evacuate with their medications than those who hadn’t.

For psychiatric medications, preparedness doesn’t mean accumulating extra prescriptions or trying to work around prescribing rules. Some medications in this category are controlled substances with specific legal and dispensing requirements.

The practical preparation is much simpler: keep the medications you currently have and the treatment information that goes with them organized so they’re ready to leave with you.

Your emergency bag shouldn’t just have a flashlight, charger, water, and insurance documents. Your medication plan needs a place in it too.

If Access Is Already Interrupted

If you’re already unable to access a psychiatric medication, don’t use a generic online guide to decide how to stop, restart, stretch, reduce, or otherwise change it.

Contact your prescriber or pharmacist for guidance specific to your medication and medical history. If your usual provider is unavailable, another healthcare professional may be able to help determine the appropriate next step.

The goal of preparing ahead isn’t to make these clinical decisions yourself. It’s to avoid having to figure out what your prescriber would want you to do while the pharmacy is closed, you’re away from home, or the rest of an emergency is already demanding your attention.

If you or someone you care for is experiencing a mental health crisis or needs immediate support in the United States, call or text 988.

The Emergency Plan Most People Never Write

There is nothing to buy for this part of medical preparedness.

There is simply a conversation to have while your next appointment is still just a normal appointment and your next refill is still just a normal refill.

Part 1 of this series was about knowing which of your medications needs your attention first if access is disrupted. For psychiatric medications, take that preparation one step further: know what your prescriber wants you to do if access is interrupted—and make sure that answer can travel with you.

Because the middle of an emergency is not the time to discover that stopping and restarting a medication may each require their own plan.

The Jase Medical Team is a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation: clinically grounded readiness that complements, rather than replaces, primary care and the healthcare professionals you already trust.


This article was prepared by the Jase Medical content team for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Prescription requirements, emergency dispensing rules, insurance coverage, and controlled-substance regulations vary by medication, jurisdiction, and individual circumstances. Consult a licensed healthcare provider or pharmacist regarding your specific medications.

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Which of Your Medications Actually Cannot Wait?

Which of Your Medications Actually Cannot Wait?

Part 1 of a two-part series on medication readiness during a disruption

By the Jase Medical Team

There are five prescription bottles sitting on your counter. You take all five regularly, you have some medication left in each bottle, and your pharmacy is closed until Monday.

So you start doing the math: Which one matters most? Which one can wait?

It sounds like a reasonable question. The problem is that most of us have never been given the information needed to answer it. We tend to think about our daily medications as one list. We count them, refill them, pack them for a trip, and assume that being prepared means making sure they’re all accounted for.

Medically, they aren’t interchangeable. Different medications work differently in the body, and an interruption in one prescription may carry very different considerations than an interruption in another. Occasionally, the medication that seems easiest to go without is exactly the one a clinician would tell you to prioritize.

That’s why one of the most useful things you can add to your medication list isn’t another bottle.

It’s a ranking.

Your Medication List Is Only Half the Plan

Keeping an up-to-date medication list is one of the simplest things you can do for your medical preparedness. It should include each medication’s name, dose and frequency, along with your prescriber, regular pharmacy, and relevant medication allergies. Keep a copy accessible and take it with you when you travel.

That information helps another healthcare professional pick up the thread of your care if your normal provider or pharmacy isn’t available. But there’s another piece most medication lists don’t include: which prescriptions should receive the most urgent attention if access is interrupted.

The order isn’t necessarily obvious, and it isn’t something you should determine from a generic online ranking. Your diagnosis, medication, dose, medical history, and other factors can all matter. There are even medications for which illness, injury, or other physical stress may affect a patient’s needs.

In other words, the goal isn’t to memorize somebody else’s medication hierarchy. It’s to know your own.

Have Your Healthcare Team Help You Rank Them

At your next appointment, through a portal message, or the next time you speak with your pharmacist, ask:

“If I temporarily couldn’t access my medications, which of these would be most important not to interrupt?”

This isn’t asking which medications you can skip, stretch, or ration. It’s asking a healthcare professional who knows your prescriptions to identify which access problem would need to be addressed first.

Then write that information directly on your medication list.

If you manage medications for an older parent or another family member, help them have the same conversation with their healthcare team. The goal isn’t for family members to make medication decisions themselves. It’s to make sure everyone knows where to focus their attention if normal access suddenly changes.

That turns a medication list from an inventory into a preparedness tool.

Let the Ranking Guide Your Preparation

Once you know what matters most, you can focus your preparation there.

If getting every prescription onto a longer dispensing interval isn’t realistic, for example, start the conversation with the medication your healthcare team has identified as the highest priority. For an appropriate non-controlled medication, you might ask your prescriber and pharmacist whether a longer dispensing interval makes sense.

Insurance rules, prescription schedules, and dispensing restrictions vary, so this isn’t about accumulating medication or deciding how much you need on your own. It’s about making the most important access issue the first one you try to solve.

This is the same kind of prioritization sensible families already use elsewhere. We know which bills can’t wait, which insurance documents matter, and which phone numbers we’d need if something went wrong. Medical preparedness applies that same forethought to the prescriptions we depend on.

If Access Is Already Disrupted

If the pharmacy is already closed or you’ve unexpectedly run out of an important prescription, the ranking does not become a rationing plan. Don’t start stretching, skipping, doubling, or otherwise changing how you take your medications based on something you read online.

Instead, contact your prescriber or pharmacist as soon as possible. If your regular pharmacy is unavailable, another pharmacy may be able to help determine your options. Bring your prescription bottles and written medication list, call ahead when possible, and give the pharmacist time to work with you.

Emergency dispensing options vary by medication and location. The purpose of knowing your priorities beforehand is not to make treatment decisions yourself; it’s to know which problem deserves your attention first while you work with a healthcare professional to solve it.

Where JaseCase Fits, and Where It Doesn’t

At Jase Medical, we think about appropriate medical preparation in two separate layers.

The first is your maintenance medication: the prescriptions you already take to manage existing medical conditions. That’s what this article is about. Your regular healthcare team should remain at the center of decisions about those medications.

The second layer is contingency medication for certain acute illnesses that may occur while normal healthcare access is disrupted. That’s where JaseCase fits. Each request is reviewed by a licensed provider who writes the prescriptions for that individual. JaseCase medications are intended for emergency use when appropriate, after you’ve first attempted to reach a healthcare provider.

JaseCase doesn’t replace your maintenance prescriptions, and it isn’t a substitute for your primary care provider or pharmacist. It’s a separate layer of appropriate medical preparation.

Make the Decision Before You’re Under Pressure

Appropriate medical preparation doesn’t always mean acquiring something. Sometimes it means having the right information before circumstances force you to need it.

A written medication list tells another healthcare professional what you take. Adding your clinician-informed priorities tells you where to focus first if access becomes a problem.

That’s a small addition to your preparedness plan, but it can remove a major question from an already stressful situation.

Because if you ever find yourself standing at the counter looking at five prescription bottles and wondering which problem needs to be solved first, that isn’t the moment you should have to figure it out.

Coming Next: Psychiatric Medications Need Their Own Conversation

There is one group of medications that deserves a more nuanced conversation: psychiatric medications. Interruptions can carry considerations that aren’t obvious from the prescription label and shouldn’t be reduced to a generic ranking.

In Part 2, we’ll look specifically at psychiatric medication readiness during a disruption and what patients should discuss with their own prescriber before access becomes a problem.

The Jase Medical Team is a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation: clinically grounded readiness that complements, rather than replaces, primary care and the healthcare professionals you already trust.


This article was prepared by the Jase Medical content team for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Prescription requirements, emergency dispensing rules, insurance coverage, and controlled-substance regulations vary by medication, jurisdiction, and individual circumstances. Consult a licensed healthcare provider or pharmacist regarding your specific medications.

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Our mission is to help you be more medically prepared. Join our newsletter and follow us on social media for health and safety tips each week!

Wound Infection Signs: When to Use Antibiotics and When to See a Doctor

Wound Infection Signs: When to Use Antibiotics and When to See a Doctor

By the Jase Medical Team

It’s day three after you cut your forearm.

Yesterday, the area around the cut was a little pink. Today, it looks angrier. Maybe it feels warmer, too.

So you start wondering: Is my cut infected? Do I need an antibiotic? Or is this just what healing looks like?

The reassuring answer is that some redness, warmth, tenderness, and mild swelling during the first day or two can be part of normal wound healing.

What matters more is what happens next.

If the redness is spreading instead of settling down, the pain or swelling is getting worse, drainage or pus appears, or you begin feeling sick, the picture changes.

But even then, an antibiotic isn’t automatically the solution. Most of what can go wrong with a wound starts with another question:

What kind of problem is this?

Normal Healing vs. Wound Infection: Watch the Direction

A fresh cut triggers inflammation as your body begins repairing damaged tissue. That can make the area immediately surrounding the wound look red, warm, mildly swollen, or tender.

Redness alone doesn’t mean infection.

Instead, watch the trajectory.

A wound that is gradually becoming less painful and irritated is moving in the direction we’d expect from healing. A wound that becomes increasingly red, swollen, warm, or painful after the first couple of days—or develops pus or spreading redness—deserves more attention.

Signs that should prompt you to contact a healthcare professional include:

  • Redness that is expanding around the wound
  • Increasing warmth, swelling, or pain
  • Pus or cloudy drainage
  • Fever or feeling increasingly unwell
  • Red streaking extending away from the wound
  • A wound that is worsening rather than healing

And if symptoms are severe or progressing quickly, don’t wait for a routine appointment.

If There’s an Abscess, an Antibiotic Can’t Drain It

Suppose the problem isn’t simply redness around a cut. Instead, a painful, swollen pocket of pus has formed underneath the skin.

That’s an abscess.

And this is one of the most important limitations of an antibiotic: a pill can’t open and drain a pocket of pus.

Incision and drainage is the primary treatment for many skin abscesses. Depending on the situation, a clinician may prescribe antibiotics in addition to drainage—but antibiotics don’t necessarily replace the procedure.

It’s similar to an infected tooth. Medication may sometimes help control infection or buy time, but it doesn’t perform the procedure that fixes the underlying problem.

No oral antibiotic in any emergency medication kit—including ours—can drain an abscess.

If you have a painful, enlarging lump, significant pus collection, or a wound that appears to need drainage, get it evaluated rather than trying to solve the problem with an antibiotic alone.

Don’t Forget the Tetanus Question

There’s another wound-care question that has nothing to do with antibiotics:

When was your last tetanus shot?

Most people remember “every 10 years,” and that’s correct for routine tetanus vaccination.

But wounds can change the timeline.

For certain dirty or major wounds—including puncture wounds and wounds contaminated with dirt or soil—a booster may be recommended if it has been five or more years since your last tetanus-containing vaccine and you’ve completed the initial vaccine series.

So imagine you’re working in the garden, step on a nail, and realize your last tetanus booster was eight years ago.

You may still think you’re covered because you haven’t reached the familiar 10-year mark.

For that type of wound, however, it’s worth contacting a healthcare professional about whether a booster is due.

Your wound plan isn’t just about infection. Sometimes the most important medication decision is a vaccine, not an antibiotic.

Sometimes an “Infected” Red Leg Isn’t Infected

Here’s another reason not to diagnose a wound infection based on redness alone.

Research suggests that roughly one in three people initially thought to have cellulitis actually have another condition instead.

One common mimic is stasis dermatitis, an inflammatory skin condition associated with circulation problems in the legs. It can cause redness, swelling, warmth, and skin changes that resemble an infection.

Contact dermatitis can cause similar confusion.

That’s particularly relevant if you’ve been applying an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment containing neomycin. Neomycin is a well-known cause of allergic contact dermatitis. The resulting redness, itching, or rash can then look like the original wound is getting worse.

The instinct may be to add more antibiotic ointment to what looks like an infection—when the product itself may be contributing to the irritated skin.

If the picture isn’t clear or the redness continues to worsen, that’s another reason to have a clinician look at it rather than repeatedly treating it yourself.

Diabetes and Circulation Problems Change the Wound Plan

If you have diabetes or peripheral vascular disease, wounds deserve additional attention.

Peripheral vascular disease can reduce blood flow to the affected tissue. That can slow healing and make it harder for the body—and sometimes medications delivered through the bloodstream—to reach the area effectively.

Diabetes can also be associated with neuropathy, which may reduce sensation. A blister, cut, or pressure injury can therefore become more significant before pain alerts you that something is wrong.

If you have one of these conditions, don’t rely solely on pain to tell you how serious a wound is. Check wounds carefully and involve your healthcare team sooner if healing isn’t progressing normally.

When Does a Wound Need Urgent Medical Care?

Some wound problems shouldn’t be managed by waiting to see whether an oral antibiotic works.

Seek prompt medical evaluation for rapidly spreading redness or swelling, significant red streaking, severe or rapidly worsening pain, fever or systemic illness, substantial pus or a suspected abscess, or a wound that is becoming significantly worse.

Deep wounds, significant punctures, animal or human bites, wounds involving important structures, and wounds heavily contaminated with soil or floodwater may also need professional evaluation.

And if the skin is rapidly changing color, pain seems dramatically out of proportion to what the wound looks like, or you become severely ill, seek emergency care.

Rare but aggressive soft-tissue infections can require IV medications and immediate surgery. An oral antibiotic at home is not a substitute for that level of treatment.

So When Do Antibiotics Actually Fit?

Antibiotics can have an important role when a clinician determines that a bacterial wound or skin infection is present and that antibiotic treatment is appropriate.

One example is spreading cellulitis associated with a wound.

But even there, the medication is only one part of the clinical picture. The wound may need cleaning, drainage, evaluation for a foreign object, a tetanus booster, or another intervention depending on what happened and what the clinician sees.

At Jase Medical, that distinction matters.

JaseCase includes physician-prescribed contingency medications for certain common bacterial infections when normal healthcare access is disrupted. Every request is reviewed by a licensed medical provider, who determines whether the medications are appropriate and writes the prescriptions for the individual.

If you develop signs of a wound infection, try to reach an appropriate healthcare provider first. Contingency medication is for situations where normal access is genuinely unavailable—not a reason to delay care for a wound that needs a procedure or urgent evaluation.

Know What the Pill Can’t Do

When a wound starts looking worse on day three, it’s tempting to reduce the decision to:

Antibiotic or no antibiotic?

A better question is:

What does this wound actually need?

Sometimes it’s routine wound care and more time. Sometimes it’s an antibiotic. Sometimes it’s drainage. Sometimes it’s a tetanus booster. Sometimes the redness isn’t an infection at all.

And occasionally, the right answer is to stop looking in the medicine cabinet and get to medical care.

At Jase Medical, we’re a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation. We’d rather tell you what a medication can’t do than let you discover its limits when an infection is getting worse.

Because being medically prepared isn’t simply having the right prescription.

It’s knowing when the prescription is—and isn’t—the right tool.

The Jase Medical Team is a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation: clinically grounded readiness that complements, rather than replaces, primary care and the healthcare professionals you already trust.


This article was prepared by the Jase Medical content team for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Prescription requirements, emergency dispensing rules, insurance coverage, and controlled-substance regulations vary by medication, jurisdiction, and individual circumstances. Consult a licensed healthcare provider or pharmacist regarding your specific medications.

Lifesaving Solutions

Everyone should be empowered to care for themselves and their loved ones during the unexpected. Check out our recent lifesaving products today.

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Keeping you informed and safe.

For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication

For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication

For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication: The Ordinary Disruptions, Not the Disaster By Dr. Jamie Wilkey, PharmD, Director of Clinical EducationMedically reviewed and edited by Kristen Carpenter, PA-C As a pharmacist, I've helped patients keep access to...

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The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency

The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency

The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency By the Jase Medical Team Most of the time, you don't have to think very hard about drug interactions. Your doctor has your medication list. Your pharmacy has it too. When a new prescription comes through, software...

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For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster

For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster

For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster: The Combinations a Bad Week Creates By Dr. Jamie Wilkey, PharmD, Director of Clinical EducationMedically reviewed and edited by Kristen Carpenter, PA-C When we think about prescription medicine in a disaster, we most...

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The Most Common Infections You Can Get in an Emergency or Disaster

The Most Common Infections You Can Get in an Emergency or Disaster

By the Jase Medical Team

When most people picture getting an infection after a hurricane or flood, they imagine contaminated floodwater, a cut on the leg, and some unusual bacteria they’ve been warned about on the news.

But oftentimes, it’s the invisible outbreaks that happen when communities are displaced.

It’s a gym floor lined with 200 cots and a stomach bug moving through the room in 48 hours.

When you look at documented outbreaks after real U.S. disasters, the infections people actually encounter are almost the reverse of how they’re often presented in preparedness content.

The most common threats aren’t necessarily rare bacteria lurking in floodwater. They’re the same highly contagious viruses that spread anywhere people are suddenly living close together.

And for those infections, soap, distance, screening, and good sanitation can matter more than anything in your medicine cabinet.

#1: Stomach Bugs Like Norovirus

If you evacuate to a crowded shelter, one of the biggest infectious-disease concerns is gastrointestinal illness—particularly norovirus.

Norovirus spreads extremely easily through contaminated hands, surfaces, food, and close contact. A shelter gives it plenty of opportunities: shared bathrooms, communal meals, frequently touched surfaces, and hundreds of people living in close quarters.

We’ve seen this play out repeatedly.

During the 2025 Eaton Fire response in Pasadena, shelter surveillance identified 104 cases of norovirus. During the 2018 Camp Fire, an outbreak across eight shelters involved 292 cases, with an estimated attack rate of about 27%. The median age of patients in that outbreak was 63.

What brought these outbreaks under control?

Not antibiotics.

Public-health teams screened people for symptoms, separated those who were sick, intensified cleaning and disinfection, and emphasized handwashing and infection-control measures.

That’s an important preparedness lesson: sometimes the best tool for preventing an infection isn’t a medication.

If you’re staying in a shelter, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, pay attention to sanitation around shared spaces, and follow shelter instructions if you develop vomiting or diarrhea. If you’re sick, limiting contact with others helps protect the people around you too.

#2: Respiratory Viruses

Crowded shelters also create ideal conditions for respiratory illnesses to spread.

During the Eaton Fire shelter response, surveillance identified 56 cases of COVID-19, 29 cases of influenza, and another 30 cases of other respiratory illness.

Again, these were viral illnesses—not bacterial infections that could be solved with an antibiotic.

The same basic principles that reduce respiratory transmission elsewhere still matter during an evacuation: give sick people space when possible, wash your hands, cover coughs and sneezes, improve ventilation when circumstances allow, and follow public-health guidance in the shelter.

If you develop significant symptoms or you’re concerned about your individual risk, seek medical guidance. Depending on the illness and the person, a clinician may recommend testing or specific treatment.

But reaching automatically for an antibiotic isn’t the answer to a viral respiratory infection.

#3: Skin and Wound Infections

This is where the more familiar post-hurricane picture starts to become relevant.

Floodwater can contain sewage, debris, microorganisms, and other contaminants. At the same time, cleanup work creates plenty of opportunities for cuts, punctures, scrapes, and other injuries.

That combination can lead to skin and wound infections.

Prevention starts before infection does: avoid floodwater when possible, cover existing wounds, wear protective footwear and gloves during cleanup, and clean new wounds appropriately.

Then pay attention to what happens afterward.

Increasing redness, warmth, swelling, drainage, worsening pain, fever, or redness that appears to be spreading away from a wound deserves medical attention.

This is also one of the narrower situations where a prescribed oral antibiotic may have a role when an ordinary wound infection develops and begins spreading.

But “I was exposed to floodwater” doesn’t automatically equal “I need antibiotics.” The wound, symptoms, exposure, and severity all matter.

What About the Scary Floodwater Infections?

There are bacterial infections associated with floodwater that deserve to be taken seriously. They simply shouldn’t be presented as though they’re more common than norovirus or respiratory viruses.

Leptospirosis is one example. The bacteria can spread through water or soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals. Following Hurricane Fiona, Puerto Rico recorded 156 leptospirosis cases over a 15-week period, and 72% of those patients were hospitalized.

Certain Vibrio infections are another serious concern, particularly when a wound is exposed to coastal or brackish water.

These infections can become severe quickly.

And that’s precisely why they don’t belong in the category of “keep some antibiotics around and treat it yourself.”

A severe Vibrio wound infection, for example, can require urgent antibiotics, hospital care, and surgical removal of infected or dead tissue. A pill sitting in a medicine cabinet cannot provide that care.

Rare invasive fungal infections can also occur after major disasters and traumatic injuries. They’re serious, but they’re rare—and giving them equal weight with the viral illnesses that routinely spread through crowded shelters distorts what you’re actually most likely to encounter.

The Most Serious Infections Are Often “Get to Care” Problems

This distinction matters when you’re building a medical emergency plan.

There’s a tendency in preparedness conversations to reduce infection planning to one question:

What antibiotics should I have?

But that’s the wrong starting point.

Some of the infections you’re most likely to encounter after a disaster are viral, meaning antibiotics won’t treat them at all.

Some bacterial infections may require prescription treatment after evaluation.

And some of the most dangerous post-disaster infections need capabilities you simply cannot reproduce at home: diagnostic testing, IV medication, wound management, surgery, or hospital-level monitoring.

Appropriate medical preparation means knowing the difference.

A prescription can be incredibly valuable when it’s the right tool. But being prepared also means recognizing when the right response is to get to medical care.

Where Does a JaseCase Fit?

There is a narrower space where having appropriately prescribed contingency medication can matter.

Imagine you’re cleaning up after a hurricane and sustain a cut. Despite cleaning and monitoring it, several days later you develop signs of a routine bacterial skin infection with spreading cellulitis—and local healthcare access is genuinely disrupted.

That’s very different from taking an antibiotic because you stepped in floodwater or developed diarrhea at a shelter.

JaseCase provides physician-prescribed contingency medications for certain common acute illnesses when normal healthcare access isn’t available. Every request is reviewed by a licensed medical provider, who determines whether the medications are appropriate and writes the prescriptions for the individual.

If you become ill during an emergency, you should still try to reach an appropriate healthcare provider first. Your JaseCase is a contingency layer for when that normal access has broken down—not a replacement for clinical care and certainly not a substitute for emergency treatment when symptoms are severe.

Prepare for What Actually Happens

If you’re preparing for a hurricane, wildfire, flood, or evacuation, start with the risks that repeatedly show up in real disasters.

In a crowded shelter: think handwashing, sanitation, respiratory illness, and avoiding close contact when someone is sick.

During cleanup: think gloves, sturdy footwear, wound protection, clean water, and prompt wound care.

If you become sick: know which symptoms can be managed with routine guidance and which ones mean you need to find medical care.

And when medications do have a role, use them for the problems they’re actually designed to treat.

That’s what we mean by appropriate medical preparation. We’re a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists, and we’d rather help you understand where the clinical line is than sell past it.

When Communities Need More Than Personal Preparedness

There is another side of disaster medicine that doesn’t fit inside an individual’s emergency kit.

When hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters disrupt healthcare across an entire community, people may lose access not only to a pharmacy but to clinics, medical supplies, and the healthcare professionals they normally depend on.

That’s where Jase Response, our nonprofit disaster-response organization, comes in.

Jase Response delivers essential medical services to help build resilient communities in times of crisis. Working alongside trusted response partners, the team helps mobilize medications, medical supplies, and medical providers into communities where normal healthcare access has been disrupted.

Because preparedness and response are two sides of resilience.

At home, preparation helps you care for yourself and the people you love. In a disaster zone, response helps make sure communities aren’t left to recover alone.

Support Jase Response today: https://givebutter.com/aQ8pUO

The Jase Medical Team is a family team of medical doctors, PAs, and pharmacists focused on appropriate medical preparation: clinically grounded readiness that complements, rather than replaces, primary care and the healthcare professionals you already trust.


This article was prepared by the Jase Medical content team for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Prescription requirements, emergency dispensing rules, insurance coverage, and controlled-substance regulations vary by medication, jurisdiction, and individual circumstances. Consult a licensed healthcare provider or pharmacist regarding your specific medications.

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For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication

For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication

For Clinicians | Why Patients Run Out of Medication: The Ordinary Disruptions, Not the Disaster By Dr. Jamie Wilkey, PharmD, Director of Clinical EducationMedically reviewed and edited by Kristen Carpenter, PA-C As a pharmacist, I've helped patients keep access to...

read more
The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency

The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency

The Drug Interactions You Create in an Emergency By the Jase Medical Team Most of the time, you don't have to think very hard about drug interactions. Your doctor has your medication list. Your pharmacy has it too. When a new prescription comes through, software...

read more
For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster

For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster

For Clinicians | Drug Interactions in a Disaster: The Combinations a Bad Week Creates By Dr. Jamie Wilkey, PharmD, Director of Clinical EducationMedically reviewed and edited by Kristen Carpenter, PA-C When we think about prescription medicine in a disaster, we most...

read more

Join Our Newsletter

Our mission is to help you be more medically prepared. Join our newsletter and follow us on social media for health and safety tips each week!