Illness Going Through the House

Since moving into town, I have been a lot more active outside of our home meaning I am being exposed to a lot more germs.  The problem is this past winter has been unseasonably warm with no real cold snap which translates into a lot of illness going through the house.  I woke in the early morning hours of Friday knowing I was sick.  It was that simple.  I went to bed feeling fine then woke feeling horrid.  Quite frankly I'm surprised I have been sick sooner!

This particular bug is causing acute respiratory distress and quickly going into bronchitis and pneumonia something I simply can't tolerate given my medical history.  It really is a nasty bug!  So, I'm sick and can't take much in the way or relief but what I focused on Friday and today was a bit of sanitizing.  This is slow going and hard to do when feeling cruddy but I firmly believe it is the only way to stop bacterial and viral infections from spreading.  I poured 50% ethanol (rubbing alcohol) into a spray bottle then went to work.  All light switches, phone sets, door knobs, appliance handles, countertops, remote controls, computer mouse and keyboard and anything with buttons or controls we might touch were treated.  Basically any surface we touch on a regular basis daily was treated including house and vehicle keys.  The ethanol alcohol evapourates so there is no need to wipe after spraying but a cloth dampened with ethanol alcohol is used for any surface that can't handle being wet for a few minutes.

Ethanol alcohol is a very effective biological control, a nice tip I picked up from being in the labs.  It kills about 99.9% of biologicals on contact and using a spray bottle it is very easy to quickly treat your home in about 10 minutes or less even if you are feeling lousy.  The house should be treated daily during an active infection but you really only need to retreat those surfaces that may have been touched since the last treatment meaning you don't necessary have to retreat door knobs and light switches that haven't been use.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012