can noro infect your clothes in the laundry????

[Pam180]

Hi,

I am new and I was so happy to find this forum! Maybe someone here can help answer my question.

I live in an apartment building with shared laundry facilities. Last week I was getting my clean laundry out of the dryer when my neighbor came in with several trash bags full of soiled laundry. She told me her son was sick with sv* and had v*ed all over everything. She started pulling things out to rinse in the sink, and obviously was going to wash all the soiled stuff in the machines.

Well of course I'm terrified of contracting noro so I got my clean clothes and booked it out of there, washed my hands, bleached my laundry basket, and was fine. But I haven't been back to the laundry room since.

So, does anyone know if those v* covered things could contaminate the machines? She also must have touched everything in that room after touching those things. I have no idea how many people have done laundry since then, or if anyone else in my building is sick. I am terrified to do my laundry because I'm afraid they'll be contaminated in the wash! What should I do? How long to I have do wait before I can go back to the laundry room? Please help!

[ruthie1]

Mmmm, I used to think if things were boil washed they were safe BUT, recently in the UK they have started selling washing powders that contain enzymes that apparently kill the flu bug and sell it along the lines of bacteria live in your machine blah blah blah - I remain sceptical as I think it might just be a marketing gimmick. I would imagine if you boil wash your clothes you should be ok xx

[Lintu]

I don't think it can live there. I cloth diaper my daughter, and a friend who also cloth diapers did a test in her washing machine (she's a scientist) to see whether it increased the microbial level in the water. It didn't!

[paulinek]

Mmmm, I used to think if things were boil washed they were safe BUT, recently in the UK they have started selling washing powders that contain enzymes that apparently kill the flu bug and sell it along the lines of bacteria live in your machine blah blah blah - I remain sceptical as I think it might just be a marketing gimmick. I would imagine if you boil wash your clothes you should be ok xx

That new Vanish?! I was thinking it might be gimmick too but then part of me wants to buy it too.... i thought that if you can rinse noro off your hands in 20 seconds that half an hour in the washer would be fine but after that advert now i'm not so sure, another blooming thing to worry about!

[ruthie1]

Hi Pauline, yes that is the one - I know I feel I should run out and by a load ;0)

[ruthie1]

I did a bit of research online and have a read of this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...rous-bugs.html

So as long as we always hot wash we should be ok !! ;0) X

[Pam180]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts but wow, now I am waaay more concerned than before. I always wash my clothes on cold wash, because it's supposed to be gentler on your clothes. I had never thought viruses could be spread in the wash so easily!

The problem with the suggestions in the daily mail article is that the machines in my building cost kind of a lot of money to use, and only have very limited settings. So I can set the wash to "hot" but I have no idea how hot that is. And it would get very expensive to run a wash cycle with bleach before I wash everything, or to do several loads to isolate different items.

Do you think using a bleach based detergent all the time (like the color safe bleach for all the washing) would work to keep noro and other viruses from contaminating the clothes? Now I'm so terrified to do my laundry! I feel like I am just going to have to start hand-washing everything in the bathtub!

[paulinek]

@ruthie1 thanks for that link! Think i will get some of that Vanish but just use it for poo-y baby clothes or if someone in the house has actually been sick, i'm not going to start worrying if someone has got particles on their clothing - ok, i will worry for a bit i suppose - but i'm just going to keep reminding myself that in 38 years i have never got sick from laundry!

@pam180 - i'm not sure about that kind of bleach, as it removes stains but doesn't bleach so the stuff that kills germs might have been removed as it's not a pure bleach as such. The article does say you can use a laundry disifectant, they have just started selling them here so i'm sure they will have been selling them in the US already if thats where you are as things always seem to come out first over there, or to use something like Napisan which is an antibacterial stain remover which i think was irginally for washing terry towelling nappies so again there is probably an equivalent product you can get there too, and if you then pop some of that in with your wash that should do the trick

[CMM811]

If I was to use a community washing machine I would was my "whites" first with lots of bleach...then move on to the next loads. If you wash your hands with soap and water and rinse it down the drain it's the same thing with clothes. And then high heat dryer. Personally I wouldn't buy a laundry detergent that has extra chemicals in it cause it says it kills flu bugs...just like antibacterial soap works the same as regular soap. Just remember the clothes you hang dry hang them out in the sun the ultraviolet rays (supposively) kill viruses?

[Suck it up princess.]

Don't you guys use a drier? That will kill anything.

[Pam180]

Thanks everyone for all the tips. From all the info here, and plus reading a bit more elsewhere, it does sound like washing on hot and/or running bleach through the machine should do the job. This time since I'm feeling so paranoid about it I may just pay the extra money and run an empty cycle with bleach to disinfect the machine. And though I usually wash more delicate items in the machine on cold and hang dry, at least this time around I will just hand wash them - and maybe in the future, too. I had no idea that washing machines could be so dirty!

I hope this thread will also be helpful for people with their own washing machines, to know that you have to wash and dry any clothes and linens that could have been contaminated on HOT, and that you should run bleach through your machine once in a while to clean it.

[BenBHartnett]

It may be worth it to pay the extra money to run bleach through it. That should disinfect the washer if the virus is present. I used to have the same worry when I went to a Laundro-mat. I would worry that someone had vomit on their clothing it and infected the machine. Thankfully, I don't have to go to a laundro-mat anymore.

Just curious here. How many washers and dryers does your place have? If there are multiple units you could always use a different one if you knew what one the person used. I wouldn't worry about getting sick though. It's not worth it. This fear is so draining sometimes. Even if your clothes were contaminated with the norovirus all you have to do is wash your hands to avoid it. Also, out of curiosity how old is the boy who was sick? If he is younger than 3 he may have been infected with the rotavirus. Most teenagers-adults don't really run the risk of getting sick from that virus because they have been exposed to it when they were younger. Anyway, I am just trying to think of things to help you feel better