Can anyone advise me whether a spill kit is sufficient to clean up sick or should we be looking at a specialist bio-hazard type kit?

Grateful for your advise.

Many thanks Ian.

Have a look at Vomiting Larry (developed by HSL) on the spread of viral particles with someone with winter vomiting bug - covers quite a large area!!


http://www.hsl.gov.uk/ne...-on-the-bbc-website.aspx


Guess it also depends where the sick lands - are there any people with surpressed immunity (such as the elderly or children).

There are kits out there that would enhance the olde bucket and mop as that relies on the person cleaning both effectively...otherwise the chunder just gets spread around the rest of the building....nice!

Read the report and even watched the programme so am well aware of the difference thank you. However, the OP did not state what TYPE of vomit was being expelled and with us about to enter the colder months (and by definition the flu season) where noro virus COULD result in someone vomiting, the spread of viral particles within an enclosed environment and the fact that it could last several days and still be infectious COULD be an issue when cleaning up said vomit so I find your remark uncalled for and patronising.

I WILL however reiterate about the cleaning of any item used to mop up "ordinary vomit" (if that would make the distinction clearer for you) as I have seen this done in practice - filthy mop used to lift sick and bucket left sitting uncovered with young children in the area with full access to the mop and bucket. About 3 days later, half the children in the area reported ill. If done correctly, as others have said a bucket and mop CAN be effective at removing sick but there ARE levels of decontamination to consider when dealing with vomit that SHOULD be considered.

Ian,
I must say as an observation, more often than not you articulate yourself (in written form at least) what could be construed as aggresive and intolerant of others. You may be unaware of this, you may think 'that's your opinion'. Just needed saying!

Find it somewhat ironic that Ian's photo is of a petri dish with what looks like a culture of some bacteria / virus but he didn't seem to get the link between cleaning up sickness and noro virus / projectile vomiting (thus spread of particles across a room) and see how it could be linked!?

Unless you've actually watched the person stuff 35 chilli burgers (or similar) and then throw up, how can you possibly NOT rule out they might have some nasty bug that would love to spread the love ;)

Ignorance, sarcasm, but very little meaningful comment.

The issue of projectile vomiting in patients with Norovirus infection is of massive shedding of virus particles and the high pathogenicity of that virus, around 10 to 50 virus particles.

That results in expansive contamination of the wider environment, and huge airborne carriage that is itself a problem. So, the contamination is far greater than would be seen with a pile of 'sick' (vomitus) since virus would be in air and would remain suspended for several hours, even longer since the patient would vomit repeatedly. There would be contamination, but not visible contamination across the floor, on the walls, on furniture, all over the patient, and probably on your faux leather patches too.

That creates a fundamentally different cleaning scenario to the one described, but don't let a few facts get in the way of a churlish and sarcastic response. I guess it's true, that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".

Mops, cleaning and vomit.

This was NTU Diploma learning 20 years ago. It was taught under the Bio Hazard module.

Mops were to be identified for a particular use and coloured coded as were the buckets.

All bodily fluids including vomit were captured under the Bio Hazards regime. Therefore a simple risk assessment should indicate the need for the appropriate PPE, the precaution to be taken and how to dispose of the waste. The assessment would not be complete until the "tools" used for the clean up were adequately cleansed and stored correctly so as to avoid any cross contamination. Sodium hypochlorite(bleach) was advanced as a possible and sometimes used disinfectant.

Hope this helps.

Jon

If he could resist sneering at our perceived ignorance he often has interesting things to say.
As a ex scientist (microbiology) myself, I can't understand how he can leap to the conclusions he does with so little evidence.

and on that note, I'm off to lunch...
Cheers!

Several posts from this topic have been hidden. Please could forum users be reminded to respect one anothers views and skills in their posts on the forums.

Thank you.