News & Views

Lurking under the surface of Florida’s pristine beaches and tourist attractions is a reality that residents know all too well – Florida properties are a magnet for bacteria, bugs and blight. Due to its warm, tropical weather and location below sea-level land, Florida offers a host of challenges to keeping commercial properties clean. The three…

People getting sick in food service areas is a fact of life. When this happens, facility cleaning professionals must assume that the ill person has norovirus, prompting proper cleaning actions that will help prevent the spread of bacteria. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that roughly 75 percent of norovirus cases…

International Women’s Day celebrates the essence and achievements of women all over the world. One of the most important rights that women have all over the world is the right to good health. Women are prone to certain diseases and need to take steps in the right direction early on to stay healthy. Here are…

The office is one of the easiest places to catch the flu, according to an article on the ABC12 website. It’s peak flu season now, so chances are someone at the office has caught the bug – and when one person gets sick it seems to spread like wildfire. Getting a vaccine is probably a…

The people responsible for keeping facilities in Central Ohio in top shape say that the work done by custodial staffs is an important step in the battle to prevent illnesses this time of year, according to an article on the Columbus Dispatch website. Schools, office buildings and any place where large groups of people gather…

Just one month ago, news outlets were flooded with reports of school closings due to widespread flu outbreaks. Cleaning crews were busy disinfecting surfaces and promoting healthy handwashing habits. But today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) most recent FluView report for the week ending March 17 shows that flu activity is actually…

In 2014, an Ontario hospital experienced a facility-wide Clostridium difficile (C.diff) infection outbreak. Further, and suspected of being related to this, nosocomial illnesses had risen significantly behind baseline rates, alarming hospital administrators. To address these problems, improvement initiatives were undertaken with a special focus on, what the hospital termed “environmental cleaning.” This is where Swish…

Improved hospital cleanliness combined with better hand-washing habits are the best route to cut Clostridium difficile (C.diff) infection rates, according to an article on the MD Magazine website. An economic evaluation from Australia suggests that combining these efforts results in a larger decrease in C.diff cases than delivering them on their own. The cost of…

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 650,000 people worldwide could die from complications of the flu. And although it is still early in the flu season, experts believe that it is going to be a nasty one. For example, according to infectious disease experts in Texas, flu cases have doubled…

A reader writes: “You were wrong in your suggested steps for disinfecting a surface. First of all, it has to be free of soils before it can be properly disinfected. Your response?” I am amazed at the response I got to this article and apologize for not being clear. I totally agree with all of…