Editor’s Introductory Note: In January 2025, about a month after Tom sent in this article, Jase became a SurvivalBlog advertiser. We do our best to keep advertising and editorial as separate spheres. – JWR
Author’s Note: I am not a medical professional. The information included in this article is not intended as medical advice. It is just an account of my own personal experiences. Please seek competent medical advice as you formulate your own emergency medical plans.
A number of years ago, the area where I was living was swept by a Category 5 blizzard. All of the roads in the area were closed by the State Police for five days. Drifts more than six feet deep accumulated across roads in many locations. Civil Defense workers had to risk their lives to bring people needed medications.
More recently, the Covid scare resulted in supply chain disruptions. Some people were unable to obtain needed medications.
In light of the fact that similar future emergencies may disrupt access to life-saving medications, it seems prudent to obtain a supply of some of the more commonly used medications ahead of time.
Jase Medical offers antibiotic kits “to be better prepared medically for purposes of future travel, residing in an underserved medical area, to protect myself against potential supply issues, or due to mobility issues.”
The “Jase Case” consists of five commonly used antibiotics that can be used to treat over 50 different kinds of infection. It was priced at $269.95 at the time of this writing at Jasemedical.com . That cost compared favorably at the time of this writing with the cost of using www.GoodRX.com to purchase the same medications at the local pharmacy.
If you are interested in obtaining a supply of vital medications as a part of your disaster preparedness plan, you may want to look into Jase Medical as a potential resource.
Background
My Father was a Physician and my Mother was a nurse. For most of my life, free access to high quality, personalized medical advice was just a phone call away. Even after both my parents passed away, my Dad’s former partner continued to provide me with excellent care.
Eventually, the day came when my Dad’s former partner retired. I was finally and fully cast upon the American healthcare system on the same terms as any other typical Yankee Doodle Dandy.
At about that same time, the passage of the “Affordable Care Act” resulted in a rapid decline in the level of care that I was able to afford.
Then Covid came along. The nation’s highest public health leadership gave advice, and then gave directly contradictory advice, explicitly claiming that their own previous advice was a lie told for the purposes of avoiding panic. Political leaders provided advice and demands that were clearly arbitrary and capricious.
With all of that in mind, I became interested in becoming more proactive in my own healthcare. So when I ran across the Jase Medical Antibiotic Kit online, I was interested. I contacted Jase, and requested a kit for evaluation. After doing their due diligence, they were kind enough to agree.
Screening
Antibiotics are prescription medications. This made it necessary to undergo an appropriate medical screening to determine if prescriptions for the requested medications were warranted in my case.
The screening began with a series of questions that requested information about my age, country where located, biological sex, allergies to medication, legal name, date of birth, medical history, primary care physician, whether I have had a recent physical exam, and the nature of my regular medication use.
I then needed to agree to a number of conditions which included having read and agreed to certain policies, that I would use the medications only under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional whenever such professional guidance is available to me, that I will inform my primary care physician of any significant changes to my health conditions, that I will store my Jase Case medications securely and out of access to children, that I am not seeking additional medications to be used by friends or family members, that I am not seeking antibiotics to treat an active medical diagnosis or problem, that I am not seeking antibiotics to allow me to self-treat illnesses in non-emergent settings where the traditional healthcare system is accessible, that I am not seeking antibiotics to replace routine healthcare by my primary care physician, and that in seeking out these medications I am making efforts to be better prepared medically for purposes of future travel, residing in an underserved medical area, to protect myself against potential supply issues, or due to mobility issues.
Next, I needed to provide the last four digits of my Social Security number and an image of my government-issued photo ID.
My clinical history and medication request was then reviewed by a board-certified physician who is licensed to practice in my State of residence. The physician found my request to be in order, so he submitted my prescriptions to the pharmacy. He also provided the following medical advice: “Remember that these medications are for emergency use ONLY. Do not use them unless instructed to do so by a physician. Only reference the instruction manual for self-administration if you absolutely cannot reach a physician for guidance. These medications can have side effects and may be dangerous depending on your personal medical situation and should only be used under the supervision and guidance of a physician unless a physician is absolutely unavailable. In the meantime, please make sure that you continue your regular visits with your primary care provider and ensure your exams and labs remain up to date. If you have any questions feel free to reply to this message directly. This will help us ensure a quick and appropriate response. If you experience severe symptoms such as difficulty breathing, chest pain, severe dizziness, or any other life-threatening condition, call your local emergency number immediately or go to the nearest emergency room.”
Four days after the completion of the screening process, a package was delivered to my door via FedEx.
Contents
The sturdy nylon case contained the following medications:
28 – Ciprofloxacin HCL 500 mg tablets. In addition to anthrax, the plague, and typhoid fever, this antibiotic can be used to treat certain types of urinary tract, bladder, prostate, lung, sinus, skin, bone, joint, and abdominal infections.
28 – AMOX-CLAV 875-125 mg tablets. Among other illnesses, this antibiotic can be used to treat certain types of sinus, lung, ear, urinary tract and skin infections.
30 – Metronidazole 500 mg tablets. Among other illnesses, this antibiotic can be used to treat certain types of vaginal, stomach, liver, skin, joint, brain, spinal cord, lung, heart, and bloodstream infections.
120 – Doxycycline Hyclate 100 mg capsules. Among other illnesses, this antibiotic can be used to treat certain types of skin, urinary tract, respiratory tract, eye, and gum infections.
6 – Azithromycin 250 mg tablets. Among other illnesses, this antibiotic can be used to treat certain types of lung, throat, sinus, skin, and ear infections.
The case also contained the Jase MedDeck. The MedDeck is a set of plasticized cards that give generalized information about certain medical conditions and medications. This information is not a substitute for the advice of a medical professional. But in an emergency situation in which the advice of a medical professional is absolutely unobtainable, the MedDeck may be better than nothing.
Jase Medical also has a pharmacist available for consultation during business hours.
Cost Analysis
I do not have prescription insurance. In most cases this means that one of the most cost effective ways for me to fill my prescriptions is through my local pharmacy using www.GoodRX.com . A check on GoodRX revealed a price of $43.84 for the Ciprofloxacin HCL, $39.04 for the AMOX-CLAV, $15.70 for the Metronidazole, $174 for the Coxycycline Hyclate, and $15.44 for the Azithromycin. This came to a total of $288.44 which was higher than the $269.95 cost of the Jase Medical Antibiotic Kit.
So, if you don’t have prescription insurance, it might be cost-effective as well as convenient for you to obtain your medications through Jase Medical.
If, on the other hand, you both have prescription insurance and a primary care doctor who is sympathetic to the idea of you storing medications for a future emergency, it may be more cost-effective for you to get your prescriptions from your primary care physician and fill them using your prescription insurance at your local pharmacy.
Expiration Dates and Storage
The antibiotics all had an expiration date that was one year from the date that the prescription was filled. Jase Medical recommends that the patient follow the pharmacy’s label on their medication when it comes to expiration dates. They specifically recommend disposing of Tetracycline, liquid form antibiotics, eye drops, nitroglycerine, insulin, epinephrine (EpiPen) and birth control pills immediately after their expiration dates.
They do qualify the foregoing advice with the following note: “In dire circumstances when there is no other option and the age of your medication is in question it is worth noting that many medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, are perfectly good to use even after as much as 15 years after their expiration date. Thanks to a government cost-saving program called Shelf-Life Extenstion Program (SLEP), the FDA, on behalf of the Department of Defense, studied more than 100 drugs and found that the vast majority retained their potency for many years beyond their expiration date. Solid-form antibiotics (tablets and capsules) were included in the study.”
Attention Medical Professionals
Many SurvivalBlog readers are medical professionals. Your input on the subject of storing medications for potential emergency situations would be extremely helpful to other SurvivalBlog readers. This input could include recommendations regarding which medications should be selected for storage, thoughts on the information included in the Jase Medical MedDeck, additional resources that you would recommend (for example, Where There Is No Doctor, or any other recommendations related to this topic.
You can send brief comments for publication in the weekly Snippets column to JWR. And any more extensive comparative comments and discussion (1,500+ words) can be submitted as an entry in the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.
Disclaimer
Jase Medical provided me with a sample of their Antibiotic Kit for evaluation. I tried not to allow their kindness to interfere with the objectivity of my review, and I believe that I have succeeded. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.
Read the full article here