Preventing dysentery in your residential home

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”2/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]An outbreak of dysentery at Stoke-on-Trent schools has once again highlighted the contagious nature of this highly unpleasant diarrhoea and sickness bug.

According to the Stoke Sentinel, the bug has struck almost 90 people in the town, including pupils and family members.

Caused by shigella bacteria, bacillary dysentery this is the most common type of dysentery in the UK and causes nausea or vomiting, diarrhoea that contains blood or mucus, fever and stomach cramps.

The Stoke-on-Trent dysentery outbreak highlights just how easily the disease is spread in places where people share toilet facilities, such as schools and care homes.

That is because the bug is spread when the poo of an infected person gets transferred into another person’s mouth. This usually happens because the infected person has not washed their hands properly after going to the toilet and then leaves infected deposits on touch points in their surroundings.

So what can you do to avoid dysentery taking hold in your care home?

Preventing dysentery in your care home

If you are worried about dysentery taking hold in your care home, then a thorough approach to hand hygiene is the single most effective way of keeping this nasty bug at bay.

In particular, make sure that your staff, residents and visitors wash their hands properly after using the toilet and throughout the day and remind them to never handle or eat food without washing their hands thoroughly first.

If you feel it would help care home users to have a reminder to hand beside sink areas, why not click here to print-off our poster on effective hand washing? You can also read more advice on the importance of hand hygiene for care home staff by clicking here.

In addition to preaching good hand washing techniques, you should also get rid of any shared hand towels or tea towels, as these could potentially be a prime dumping ground for dysentery bacteria.

What’s more, it is also advisable to disinfect touch points throughout your care home, to ensure any remaining risk is avoided.

What if dysentery has already struck your care home?

Of course, if one or more of your residents already has dysentery, it is advisable to keep them separate from other residents and visitors until 48 hours after their symptoms have disappeared.

You should also make sure that your staff thoroughly clean any areas used by these residents and wash any contaminated linen on the hottest cycle in the washing machine.

In addition, you should make sure that staff practice effective handwashing after tending to these residents, who should also be reminded to wash their hands thoroughly whenever required.

Finding a disinfectant to tackle dysentery

You can effectively disinfect touch points and contaminated surfaces throughout your care home by using Virusolve+ disinfectant cleaner, which has been shown to destroy shigella bacteria.

For toilets, floors and furniture, use a 5% solution of Virusolve+ in warm water that is below 35°C. Leave it for 5 to 10 minutes, then rinse with water and mop dry. If surfaces are covered in vomit or poo, make sure you wipe off as much as possible before following the above disinfection procedure.

If any linen or cleaning towels have become contaminated with vomit or faeces make sure you soak them in a 5% solution of Virusolve+ for 5 to 10 minutes to achieve disinfection before washing or disposal.

If you haven’t tried Virusolve before why not try Cairn Care’s Virusolve+ Starter Kit by clicking here to visit the Cairn Care online store. It’s a handy way to try our Virusolve+ and see just how powerful it is at destroying dysentery bacteria.

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