Surface Disinfecting After Illness

Surface disinfecting after illness. The importance of surface disinfecting increases when someone in your home has the telltale signs of a cold, other viruses, or an upset tummy.

Surface disinfecting after illness is all about risk mitigation. You can't eliminate the risk, but you can minimize - or mitigate - it. When you do that, you're stacking the odds in your favor - of not getting sick, that is.

When anyone in your home exhibits the telltale signs of a cold, flu, or other contagious illness, priority number one is to prevent the disease from spreading to others. Without timely action, viral transmission can spread through your home at breakneck speed. 

One recent study found that family members of people who had the flu and later became ill began showing symptoms within 2.9 days of the first household diagnosis.

Take Care and Keep Everyone Safe

Beyond washing your hands frequently and correctly, daily surface disinfecting and cleaning is your best defense. Flu viruses live on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours.

Norovirus, commonly blamed for stomach bugs, can live on hard surfaces for up to two weeks.

Knowing how to destroy these hardy germs with surface disinfection can prevent illness in your home. 

Serious Surface Disinfecting After Illness

Hit Hard Surfaces

Cleaning the counters with soapy water can kill some germs and make things look tidy—and that may be just fine when everyone in your household is healthy.

However, cleaning alone won't do the trick when someone has the flu or a stomach bug. You want to kill - not bathe - the germs. Water and mild cleaners aren't up to the tough job.

When the task at hand requires killing tough viruses and bacteria—not bathing them—it's time to call in the howitzers of the cleaning world: disinfectants.

I'm not implying you should ditch cleaning surfaces with soap and water. Surface cleaning removes dirt and grime that, if left intact, provides a significant barrier against the chemical properties of disinfectants, rendering them ineffective. Cleaning is just part one.

Take it one step at a time when cleaning and surface disinfecting counters, tabletops, doorknobs, and bed frames.

1. Wash the surface with soap and water to remove dirt and grime, preparing it for the disinfectant's work.
2. Apply your disinfecting cleaner to the surface until visibly wet. Allow it to do its dirty work on the surface for at least 10 minutes. Rinse and wipe dry.

Surface Disinfecting After Illness

Look for a cleaner labeled " disinfectant". Contrary to popular opinion, ammonia and vinegar do not kill bacteria or viruses. 

You'll need an EPA-certified disinfectant for that. When using a commercial cleaner, follow the directions on the product label.
If you don't have a commercial disinfectant handy, mix your own with chlorine bleach and laundry detergent: 

• 3/4 cup bleach

• 1 gallon of warm water

• 1 tablespoon powdered laundry detergent.

Freshness matters when using a diluted bleach solution. Chlorine bleach loses its chemical cleaning properties when exposed to open air for extended periods.

After mixing, a diluted bleach solution should be used within 24 hours to ensure freshness.

Surface Disinfecting Homemade Bleach Solution

To disinfect with your homemade bleach solution, dip a paper towel or cotton cloth in the solution and apply it to the surface until it is visibly wet. 

Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Rinse the surface clean and let it dry. For convenience, you can also use the bleach solution in a spray bottle.

According to the CDC, hydrogen peroxide is another safe and effective DIY way to kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi on hard, nonporous surfaces. 

For home disinfection, use 3% hydrogen peroxide available at your local grocery store or pharmacy. You can use it right out of the bottle; let it sit on the surface for one minute before wiping it dry.

Rubbing alcohol with a 70 percent concentration will kill most bacteria, fungi, and viruses, but it evaporates quickly. That quick evaporation means it's best used on small and hard surfaces. 

You'll need to keep the surface visibly wet for at least 30 seconds to ensure the alcohol destroys all germs. It could be helpful for computer keyboards, remote controls, smartphones, and anything else with a touchscreen. 

Room-by-Room Surface Disinfecting After Illness

To stay on top of germs during cold and flu seasons or when someone in your home is sick, regularly disinfect high-touch surfaces and any surfaces the ill person has touched.

Give special attention to surfaces in the ill person's bedroom and bathroom.

Critical surfaces to hit include bedside tables, countertops, sinks and faucet handles, remote controls and computer keyboards, doorknobs, light switches, tub or shower, and toilets (including the entire seat and the toilet handle).

Keep the Kitchen Safe

Pay close attention to the kitchen and its various surfaces. The kitchen is the room where people tend to gather and touch things, and where food and drinks are prepared and often served.

Bacteria and viruses can survive on these surfaces for days, even weeks.

Be a Careful Cook. To prevent the spread of germs, the sick person should not prepare meals for the rest of the family. 

Even the most meticulous hand-washing may not be enough to keep everyone safe, especially from easily spread germs that cause illnesses like norovirus.

Stomach bug-causing viruses like unpleasant norovirus can easily wiggle their way into food and meal prep areas at the slightest opportunity and spread quickly through hand-to-mouth contact.

If you're the one who's sick, for your family's sake, wait to prepare meals or other food until you have been symptom-free for at least 48 hours.

Whoever does the food prep and cooking should disinfect everything touched, such as the refrigerator, microwave, other appliances, drawer handles, faucets, and stove knobs.

Surface Disinfecting After Illness To Bust Bedroom Germs

Your bed is usually the go-to spot for much-needed rest when you're sick. But all that time spent horizontally with a bad cold or virus gives germs and bacteria plenty of time to get comfy, too.

Kick Germs Out of Bed. Sanitizing the bed linens in the warmest water possible and drying them thoroughly when the worst has passed is essential. Sanitizing is especially important if you can't avoid sharing a bedroom with a sick person.

Change the pillowcase on which your sick partner has coughed or sneezed daily, and you might fare better. There is no need to change the other bed linens unless they get soiled.

Focus on High-Touch Spots. Clean and disinfect objects the sick person has come into contact with as needed.

For example, if a sick person is only moving from the bed to the bathroom and back, pay close attention to the nightstand, the bathroom door handle, bedposts, changing tables, and anything else front and center that could potentially be germy.

Pacifiers and toys with hard surfaces without batteries and attached parts can go in the dishwasher.

Tackle the Trash. Use a lined wastebasket in the sick person's room to minimize contact with the germy contents when taking out the trash. Empty the sick room wastebasket bin at least once daily, replacing the bag with a fresh one each time.

Clear the Air. Dust can be extra irritating when someone is sick. Dust the furniture around their room, especially the headboard and nightstand, and vacuum the floor every few days, or more often if needed. Remember the corners and under the bed.

If the weather allows, open the windows to let stagnant, germ-filled air out and usher in fresh air. They don't need to say "open all day"-just long enough to bring in fresh air and move infected air out.

Buff the Bathroom

Bathrooms contain many problem areas that only get germier when someone is sick. Sanitize everything you encounter here.

Call in the disinfectant. Use a disinfectant cleaner on toothpaste tubes and toiletries handled by the sick person; the trash can; doorknobs; light switches; sink and shower handles; the toilet seat, lid, and handle; and the areas on the floor around the toilet.

Guard Toothbrushes. While there, clean everyone's toothbrushes with soap and water or put them in the dishwasher. Alternatively, you could replace them. You should be replacing them roughly every six months, anyway. If it's about that time, make that move.

If family members share a toothbrush holder, it is imperative to separate the infected person's toothbrush from the toothbrushes of others in the home who are not yet infected, so germs do not spread from one toothbrush to another due to proximity.

Clean Living Spaces

The family room and living room are popular gathering spots in many homes. And, where we go, our germs go, too. We sit on the sofa, chill in chairs, channel search on the carpet, with all these surfaces collecting viruses and bacteria.

Cover the risk.  Keep contamination of upholstered furniture and accessories in these rooms to a minimum by covering them with washable sheets or blankets. Wash and change the protective throws frequently. Remove any decorative pillows or cover them with washable pillowcases.

Hit High-Touch Surfaces. Remember to disinfect all the room's high-touch surfaces, including the television remote, phones, computer keyboards, and doorknobs leading to and from the room and to other rooms.