How to Remove RSV From an Infant Daycare Room

Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is highly contagious and causes respiratory disease in many young children. The infection can be spread by coughing, sneezing and mucous contact. RSV is able to live on doorknobs, counter tops, hands, clothing, walls and curtains. RSV infects lungs and breathing passages and can lead to severe infections in infants and small children. It is especially important to clean an infant's room after a bout with RSV in order to prevent reinfection or spreading to other family members. RSV is a great traveler and may hide in hard-to-reach places for days waiting to strike again. Here's how to clean a room after an RSV infection and reduce your odds of reacquiring the virus.

Things You'll Need

• Hospital strength disinfectant
• Brooms, mops, brushes, buckets and other cleaning tools
• Anti-microbial detergent
• Soap and cleansers
• Lots of cleaning cloths
• Spray disinfectant
• Bleach

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Instructions

Preparing the Room for the Baby

• 1

  Wash your hands before you start. Wash your hands often throughout the process to prevent yourself from contaminating other areas after handling infected materials. Gloves are good. Just remember to change or disinfect them after each contact with potentially infected materials or surfaces.

• 2

  If the sick child was at any time transported in your car, clean the car out, wash inside surfaces with hot soapy water and spray with disinfectant.

• 3

  Keep other family members away during the cleaning process. Send them to the zoo. Make them clean up and change clothes when they return.

• 4

  Apply a hospital strength disinfectant to clean all bathrooms, sinks, faucets and counter tops, not just in the infant room but in every room of the house. RSV can lurk in other parts of the house where infant caregivers have gone without proper hand washing and removal of contaminated clothing. If you only clean the infant room, the virus will return.

• 5

  Clean the laundry room thoroughly. Run an empty load through the washer with very hot water and bleach to sterilize the tub. Do this before you wash infected clothing and after you finish.

• 6

  Strip sheets and mattress pads off the mattress, and wash them thoroughly in a disinfectant soap or bleach. Set the mattress outside in the sun for several hours. Flip it over, and sun for several more hours. Spray with disinfectant, return it to the crib and let it air dry.

• 7

  Scrub all surfaces in the infant room with disinfectant, including bedside tables, the crib and side rails, head and foot boards, and shelves. Scrub the walls and ceilings, window sills, blinds, and fixtures. Leave no surface unscrubbed.

• 8

  Wash all toys outside in the sun with hot soapy water, rinse, spray with disinfectant and let dry in the sun for several hours.

• 9

  Remove curtains and any fabric wall hangings, throw rugs, blankets and stuffed animals, and launder with a disinfectant cleaner. Allow to dry in the sun or hot dryer.

• 10

  Launder the infant's entire wardrobe. Use an anti-microbial detergent. Hang outside to dry in the sun if possible or use a hot dryer.

• 11

  Clean all medical and health care equipment used to care for the child. Wipe down pill bottles, scissors, facial tissue boxes, nail clippers and anything you can think of that came in contact with the RSV infected child or his caregivers.

• 12

  Clean your cleaning closet thoroughly. Remove mops and soak the heads in bleach. If the head is removable and you can run it through the wash on the hot cycle with bleach, do so.

• 13

  Meet rest of the family at the door when they get back. Send everyone to wash up thoroughly, change their clothes and put the clothes in the washing machine.

• 14

  Put away all the toys, clothes and equipment, and remake the bed. Put cleaning supplies away.