Common School Bugs, Viruses, and Bacteria
Scabies: This is a parasite. Make sure to wash all clothing and bedding in hot water. Isolate non washable materials in sealed plastic bags for 72 hours. Thoroughly vacuum carpet and clean hard flooring well with GP/Neutral or neutral disinfectant cleaner. If it’s believed to be isolated to a single room or apartment, quarantine room for 72 hours. Scabies is quickly eradicated from the infected person with a topical ointment and/or oral medication. Close personal contact can spread scabies, but this would require more contact than a simple handshake. Personnel changing bed linens of an infected person should wear a disposable gown and gloves to be safe, bag the linen for transport.
Hand Foot and Mouth disease: unaware of any disinfectants that have a specific claim for Coxsackievirus. CDC recommends good hand hygiene and frequent disinfection of high touch surfaces. Often seen in daycare and early elementary, LnF Lemon Blossom non-alcohol hand sanitizer, frequent hand washing, and surface disinfecting is your best plan of attack. Hard Surface Disinfectant wipes are a great fit. If you would like to use a bleach product, try Diffense RTU, low fume bleach-based disinfectant.
Lice/Bed Bug: Spartan Bed Bug and Lice killer is a very economical option. Aerosol Bed Bug/Lice killers are for small area treatment, post infestation eradication treatment.
Ringworm: Fungal infection, not a worm. Trichophyton mentagrophytes is the kill claim you are looking for. Very common claim in Spartan broad spectrum, hospital grade disinfectants.
MRSA: the item with the most public notoriety. MRSA is generally passed from open infected wounds by direct contact, or shared personal items (towels, combs, razors, antiperspirant). If you are not using a documented MRSA disinfectant and cannot document a good cleaning process and frequency, then it will be difficult defending against a MRSA outbreak. Best prevention method is athletic department teaching and preaching band-aids, good personal hygiene and no shared personal items. Most of Spartan hospital grade disinfectants have this claim.
Norovirus: Norovirus is a virulent, highly contagious virus. It’s harder than average to kill. Spartan disinfectants with claims include: BNC-15 (5 mins at 2oz/gal), Diffense (30 sec, RTU), Halt (10 mins at 2oz/gal), and TB-Cide Quat (30 sec, RTU).
Here’s a short list of broadly applicable disinfectants. All of the Spartan HDQ series, and GS neutral disinfectants have the above claims, except for Norovirus.
- HDQc 2: neutral disinfectant concentrate through the dispensing system. This product is very economical, 10 minute total contact time, and has neutral pH good for wrestling mats.
- BNC-15: speed disinfectant concentrate through the dispensing system. This product has a 15 sec sanitize claim, 3 minute total hospital grade contact time, more economical than ready to use spray or Wipes. BNC-15 is not for floors or wrestling mats due to a high pH. This product has a norovirus kill claim at 2oz/gal.
- Spartan Hard Surface Disinfectant Wipes: ease of use for everybody (teachers, students), bloodborne rated, better disinfectant than Clorox regular wipes, less expensive too. These are not bleach based, like germicidal Bleach wipes.
- TB-Cide Quat: Ready to use (RTU) disinfectant: no mixing required in RTU form, faster than most concentrated disinfectants, excellent cleaning power. This product has a norovirus kill claim.
- Profect Disinfecting wipes: RTU wipes, ease of use, 1-minute contact time across the board. Alcohol/Quat based. Bloodborne, MRSA, Norovirus, Trichophyton mentagrophytes - has it all.