If you are anywhere near Vancouver Washington, then you are aware of a measles outbreak. However, another great question is whether your hospital grade disinfectant you are currently using will kill the virus.
We are all aware that the measles virus can be very dangerous, particularly to those who have not been vaccinated. Especially babies and young children. Therefore, it is very important to us that we ensure our clients and our healthcare community is mindful that the disinfectant they are using might not be the right product to kill this virus. Since the measles virus is airborne there isn’t much a surface disinfectant can do to help alleviate the spread of this virus. However, it can be helpful to have a disinfectant on hand that does have a kill claim for Measles, if or when the event of a patient in your facility has been diagnosed with the virus. That way you can take quick action to ensure when terminally cleaning all areas and surfaces that patient had been and touch, are being cleaned with a product that clearly states it will kill the measles virus.
We recommend checking with your janitorial supply house or medical supply rep to find out if your product will in fact kill the virus and at what dwell time. A lot of the Quaternary disinfectants will work but their surface dwell time can be up to 5 minutes. Ensuring a surface is staying that wet for that long in challenging at best.
Below is a list Clorox sent out to their clients as recommended product that have the stated claim to kill measles and their kill times. We hope this information will be helpful to you as well. In the meantime, if you are already a customer of ours in the Vancouver area, we have already switched our disinfectant protocols to ensure we have a product on our shelves in the even you have a diagnosed patient with the measles virus.
Here is a list of Clorox products and their kill/dwell times needed in order to kill the Measles virus.
Clorox Healthcare Versasure Wipes – 30 seconds
Clorox Disinfecting Wipes – 15 seconds
Clorox Healthcare Bleach Germicidal Wipes – 1 minute
Clorox Healthcare Bleach Germicidal Cleaners – 1 minute
Clorox Healthcare Fuzion – 1 minute
Clorox Germicidal Bleach – 5 minutes
Clorox Clean-Up with Bleach – 30 seconds
These Clorox items are just a suggestion of disinfectants that can be used. Their are other products available on the market. Please check with your medical supply reps for further information.