MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus S. aureus is found in the noses or on the skin up to 30% of healthy individuals. Through the use of antibiotics in healthcare settings, S. aureus developed a resistance to a class of antibiotics and became MRSA.
Methicillin is one of a group of infection treatments called beta-lactam antibiotics. These include all the antibiotics you may be familiar with such as penicillin, amoxicilin, oxacillin, and methicillin. Because it resists this class of antibiotics, more aggressive antibiotics are needed to treat the infection.
MRSA can lead to extended hospitals stays and slower healing, but it can also cause death. If a MRSA infection cannot be treated with antibiotics or removal of infected tissue, it continues to invade a patient's body and can lead to fatal organ failure.
Community-acquired MRSA, or CA-MRSA, can lead to infections outside of healthcare settings. CA-MRSA outbreaks can occur in locker rooms, unsanitary or crowded living quarters, or long-term nursing homes. These infections can be very difficult to treat, even though most of the infected patients are otherwise healthy.
You can help prevent the spread of MRSA by washing your hands often with warm water and soap, for at least 30 seconds. You can prevent being infected with MRSA or CA-MRSA by making sure to keep open wounds covered and clean. If you use a public locker room or play a contact sport, never share towels, clothing, or toiletries.
To avoid the creation of MRSA, always follow your doctor's instructions about antibiotic use. Do not take antibiotics for a virus, and always take your entire dose, even if you feel better halfway through.
From the EOS blog by Erica Mitchell.
Contact us with any questions about MRSA clean up or if you need assistance with a communicable disease cleaning.
Bio-One services all types of trauma, distressed property, and biohazard scenes in communities throughout the Triangle. We partner with local authorities, communities, emergency services personnel, victim services groups, hoarding task forces, apartment communities, insurance companies and others to provide the most efficient and superior service possible.
We are your crime scene cleaners dedicated to assisting law enforcement, public service agencies and property owners/managers in restoring property that has been contaminated as a result of crime, disaster or misuse.
Contact us for help.
With a 5-Star rating on both Google My Business and Home Adviser, our compassionate and discreet trauma cleanup crews are available 24/7/365 and can be on-scene in just a few hours.
Every company performing any sort of decontamination or cleanup services in this industry in North Carolina needs to have the correct training. Bio-One hires and trains high skilled technicians with the certifications to get the job and disposal done correctly. We also understand that this is about helping you get through an unimaginable situation. Our company motto is "help first, business second." Bio-One continues to be the most compassionate organization in the industry.
Got an awful case of off-season allergies, windowsills that appear to be growing a five o’clock shadow, or tiny-but-telltale spots of discoloration on your drywall?
If you live in a cold climate, kicking up the heater during winter months doesn’t just keep you warm—it also helps to create a perfect environment for winter mold and mildew.
Not only are fungal infestations unsightly, but they can cause allergic reactions such as sneezing, stuffy noses, and itchy eyes. And, in the case of mold, can spread relatively unnoticed, quietly compromising the integrity and strength of your very walls.
Here are six tips to help prevent mold growth in the winter.
When all the right conditions are present, moisture, ample food, and a temperature between 41 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, mold will begin growing within 24 to 48 hours.
The easiest way to beat these fungal culprits in the winter months is with prevention. Here’s how to limit moisture, remove tempting food sources, and keep an eye out for the first telltale signs of a winter mold problem.
Use fans and keep windows open as long as the weather allows. Once it becomes too cold, consider purchasing a dehumidifier to reduce the overall moisture inside your home. Look for one that offers digital readings, which can help you to keep your indoor humidity level below 40 percent.
Watch for leaks in common areas such as windows, exterior-to-interior doorways, and the surrounding areas by swamp coolers and skylights. Don’t forget to check your indoor plumbing for excess moisture. Check for hidden leaks in areas such as under bathroom and kitchen sinks.
Mold and mildew can grow at a rapid pace. The longer you leave a leak unattended, the more likely you are to experience mold and the damage that comes with it.
In short, the moment you suspect or see a leak, fix it.
Since fungi thrive on quick-to-decompose items such as books, piles of loose papers, or boxes of clothing, use strategy when storing these items.
The best areas for long-term storage are away from external walls or windows. Pick an area that enjoys circulation to prevent the possibility of built-up moisture. Also keep a close eye on the moisture in your bathroom and clean surfaces regularly as well. Bathrooms can carry the most moisture in the home.
In rooms where moisture is a problem, area rugs and other washable floor surfaces are preferred over wall-to-wall carpet. If you do have carpet up to the door and can’t do much about it (such as when renting), take care to vacuum the area regularly, inspecting for signs of any mold near the baseboards or where your carpet meets the wall.
Boiling water and taking steamy showers provide your home’s environment with plenty of moisture. Make sure not to slack when it comes to turning on exhaust fans, including the one in your oven’s hood, which can help reduce condensation formation.
It’s also helpful to leave exhaust fans on for twenty to thirty minutes after steaming up a room, along with wiping down moisture on the walls with a dry rag.
Unless the growth is very minor, research reveals that it’s probably best to hire a professional to remove it. That’s because, according to experts, natural cleaning solutions won’t do the trick. Even bleach is considered too weak to eradicate mold spores, and household cleaners will only disguise the smell while giving the mold time to grow.
Fungicidal sprays are the only solution that can kill mold spores and the amount of chemical you’d need to remove mold can be equally hazardous to your health. Bio-One technicians are certified in mold testing and remediation. We do air quality and mold testing, mold remediation and encapsulation. Give Bio-One a call today for your free, no obligation consult and estimate. Bio-One serves the Triangle and surrounding areas.
Several factors lead to increased concerns about mold during the winter months. Moisture conditions indoors can lead to the growth of molds and mildews. While it's true that forced heating systems make indoor air drier overall during the winter months, certain areas of the home may experience intensified levels of humidity because of a lack of ventilation. Bathrooms and kitchens are particularly susceptible to this problem. Steamy showers in small bathrooms spell trouble, as does the accumulation of steam from washing dishes and cooking in the kitchen. Because of cold weather, windows aren't usually open, and condensation collects on indoor surfaces such as cold walls or windows and their frames, often creating ideal conditions for mold allergies in winter.
Obviously, if you notice visible mold or mildew growing in a certain area of your home, it is clear that you have a mold problem. You will need to identify the source of the moisture and remedy the problem at the source. For instance, if you discover mold growing under your bathroom sink, look to see if there are leaky pipes that may be dripping water and repair them.
However, though you may not notice mold growth in certain area, this does not mean that mold isn't present or that it won't grow if you don't take action. Indications such as condensation forming on window panes or peeling paint on window sills suggest moisture buildup that makes the area susceptible to mold growth. Water stains likewise indicate a moisture problem and a potential hotspot for mold growth. Any area where water sits or steam collects, such as in shower stalls or bathtub rims, (particularly the area around toiletry bottles and the like) is also a place to keep an eye on.
The most important thing to remember when cleaning up a mold or mildew problem is to protect yourself from exposure. Be sure to wear an allergy mask such as the AllergyZone N95 Filter Mask when cleaning mold. If you are sensitive to mold, you should also protect yourself from exposure by wearing goggles and gloves. Make sure to discard or thoroughly clean any equipment when you are finished with the job.
Now for how to actually clean the mold: Many people believe that the best thing for cleaning mold and mildew is bleach or a bleach solution. However, there are two basic problems with using bleach to solve a mold problem, especially for allergy sufferers. One problem is that fumes and residue from bleach are toxic and can cause additional respiratory problems for sensitive individuals. Another problem is that bleach does not necessarily kill the mold, but can trick you into thinking that the mold is dead because the mold seems to disappear; however, it may actually just be whitened, but still there, propagating itself further. While bleach may be used on hard, non-porous surfaces (although we do not recommend it), using bleach on porous surfaces such as wood is simply not effective because mold's roots can penetrate deep into the surface.
Bio-One technicians are mold certified experts. Whether you require air quality testing, mold testing or remediation, we use the very latest techniques and procedures to identify and remediate the mold. For mold remediation services near you, call us today for your free, no obligation mold inspection and estimate. Bio-One serves the Triangle and surrounding areas.
Logistics is a big part of Brendan Keany’s job. As the general manager of Penn South, a sprawling co-op complex with 2,820 apartments in Chelsea, Mr. Keany is used to coordinating the schedules of his crew, contractors and residents when any repair work is required.
He was taken aback, however, by the psychological complexity involved in a $145 million project a few years ago — one that necessitated replacing all the old heating, ventilating and cooling pipes in every apartment.
Getting access to someone’s home is always an issue, Mr. Keany said. Over the years, there have been more than 100 residents who regularly refuse to let his staff conduct the co-op’s annual fan coil unit inspection. But after compiling a list of residents who were unresponsive to an initial request for a home inspection, before the pipe project even started, Mr. Keany learned that many were embarrassed to open their doors because of what lay inside: homes that were overfurnished, cluttered and in disarray. He eventually discovered that about 50 of those apartments housed compulsive hoarders.
The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 2 to 5 percent of the population could be classified as compulsive hoarders, people who suffer from a disorder that impedes their ability to discard things, regardless of value. (Once a subcategory of obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding received its own designation in the 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the go-to reference book for mental health professionals published by the American Psychiatric Association.) But “it’s likely there are more people with hoarding tendencies than the often-cited figure,” said Randy O. Frost, a professor of psychology at Smith College in Massachusetts.
As the illness often manifests behind closed doors, it’s difficult to get an accurate count. But out of the 4,071 evaluations conducted by Adult Protective Services in the 2016 fiscal year, about 7.7 percent, or 308 people, were diagnosed with a hoarding disorder, said a spokeswoman for the New York City Human Resources Administration.
“Some are collectors and compulsive buyers,” said Dr. Frost, who has studied the illness for about 20 years and is the co-author of the book “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.” “Some are perfectionists and environmentalists.”
To Read The Full Article - New York Time by Kaya Laterman
Bio-One Raleigh and Raleigh Hoarding can help you or your loved one with their hoarding. From clutter removal to when items are stocked from floor to ceiling, we handle any hoarding condition, small or big. We are the leading company in hoarding removal, maintaining strict principles and a genuine desire to help people get their lives back on track. We understand how difficult hoarding can be and are going to offer you as much help as possible. Don’t hesitate to contact us to get professional help with hoarding.
Bio-One and Raleigh Hoarding are proud to service the Triangle and surrounding areas.
Hoarding can be a serious problem for many. It is the condition of excessively collecting items and inability to discard anything. It can pose health risks for the hoarder and those around him or her.
Even though everyone realizes that it is a problem, helping a hoarder is not a simple task. It requires dedication and hard work. Hoarding can easily become very difficult to manage and looking for professional help with hoarding is a good idea.
How Professionals Can Help with Hoarding.
When a person is ready to de-clutter, they need help letting go of items and cleaning their house. This would normally involve hiring a professional as sifting through the accumulated items is no easy task. The cleaning process can involve several stages:
Gather equipment: containers like trash bags or shipping crates will be needed by the cleaning team to take out items. Goggles, plastic gloves, masks and, at times, protective suits safeguard individuals against dust and bacteria
Empty the rooms: The crew may want to create a vacant staging region for the subsequent placement of retrieved products. If all the rooms are full, a driveway or a yard can suffice. It may be useful for the cleaning team to first wash the bathroom or kitchen. For subsequent washing, they can then access water faucets.
Sort the items: The items can be sorted into three classes by the cleaning team: garbage, keepers, and donations. If an item has been unused for more than a year or is broken, it is probably in the category of trash. When arranging documents, the group may need added caution, as some may have sensitive data.
Disposal of items: Many municipal hygiene facilities lease dumpsters and retrieve the garbage for a charge. Charities are often free to collect donations. The cleaning team may want to disinfect the property before returning the "keeper" products.
Professional help can also be needed in other ways. For instance, homes can require significant repair and disinfection in the wake of clearing the items. People who are hoarding livestock may need to dispose of toxic waste. This can be a difficult task to do on one’s own. Experts suggest recruiting a dedicated cleaning company if a building has a mold or pest problem.
Bio-One and Raleigh Hoarding can help you or your loved one with their hoarding. From clutter removal, items stocked from floor to ceiling, gross filth cleanup to animal feces, we handle any hoarding condition, small or big. We are the leading company in hoarding removal, maintaining strict principles and a genuine desire to help people reclaim their surrounding. We understand how difficult hoarding can be and are going to offer you as much help as possible. Don’t hesitate to contact us to get professional help with hoarding.
Karen & Rick Jacobs are the owners of Bio-One Raleigh and Raleigh Hoarding. We offer trauma, mold and hoarding cleanup services including biohazard, blood cleanup, suicide/homicide, feces & bodily fluid, animal waste, undiscovered death, and mold testing & remediation.
Bio-One Inc. is the world's first crime scene cleaning franchise. Nationally respected and locally owned, Bio-One has earned its reputation through being trusted to handle the Mandalay Bay mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in 2016, and consulted on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In 2019, Bio-One was once again included in the best and most comprehensive franchise ranking list – Entrepreneur Magazine.
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by SNG Hock Lin, Monday, November 11, 2019
The tragic case of a 68-year-old man who was found dead among piles of rubbish in his flat recently has once again cast a spotlight on a familiar but often tricky-to-solve problem: Hoarding.
An Institute of Mental Health study in 2010 found that one in 50 people will display hoarding behavior in their lifetime.
According to psychologists, hoarding becomes a behavioral disorder when a person has great difficulty in discarding objects with seemingly little value, such as stacks of yellowed newspapers and plastic bags full of old clothes.
The ever-growing pile of the mainly useless items subsequently leads to a cluttered home, giving rise to safety concerns since clutter may create fire and tripping hazards.
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The excessive clutter could also become a source of great distress and frustration for the hoarder’s family members, leading to strained relations or even rejection of the hoarder, studies have shown.
So, how does someone end up as a hoarder?
For more, go to todayonline.com.
If you or someone you love need help, please contact us for a free, no obligation consultation. We have numerous resources and gladly offer our assistance.
Karen & Rick Jacobs are the owners of Bio-One Raleigh and Raleigh Hoarding. We offer trauma, mold and hoarding cleanup services including biohazard, blood cleanup, suicide/homicide, feces & bodily fluid, animal waste, undiscovered death, and mold testing & remediation.
We proudly serve North Carolina’s Triangle and surrounding areas including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Apex, Pittsboro, Holly Springs, Clayton, Carrboro, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Hillsborough, Mebane, Morrisville, Wake Forest, and Wendell; as well as the following counties; Wake County, Durham County, Cumberland County, Guilford County, Orange County, Chatham County, Harnett County, Johnston County, Nash County, Franklin County and Pill County. We also provide services to Greensboro and other areas throughout North Carolina.
Bio-One Inc. is the world's first crime scene cleaning franchise. Nationally respected and locally owned, Bio-One has earned its reputation through being trusted to handle the Mandalay Bay mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in 2016, and consulted on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In 2019, Bio-One was once again included in the best and most comprehensive franchise ranking list – Entrepreneur Magazine.
Losing a loved one in an accident is incomprehensibly painful. The seeming unfairness and randomness of the moment is almost impossible to accept at first as grieving friends and family members try to rationalize what happened. They often feel guilty for not doing enough to prevent the death despite the fact that the incident was entirely out of their control. But nobody can prepare for the sudden and unexpected. Accidental deaths are by definition unnatural and unintentional. They include slips and falls, traffic accidents, poisonings, accidental weapon wounds, drownings, fire injuries, head traumas, industrial accidents, choking deaths, explosions, and natural disasters. Fatal accidents have always been a leading cause of death in America. But unfortunately, they are becoming more common.
According to the non-profit National Safety Council, accidental deaths increased 96 percent over the last 25 years. Though they decreased significantly between 1950 and 1980, fatal accidents have been growing rapidly since the mid-1990s.Despite our innovation in creating safer technologies, today’s rate of 52.2 deaths per 100,000 people hasn’t been seen since the mid-1970s. Now, accidents are the number one leading cause of death for people aged 1 to 44, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For all demographics, they are the third leading cause of death nationwide, with 169,936 deaths reported by the CDC in 2017.
While researchers have not reached a consensus on why accidental deaths are increasing, the NSC points to three trends to explain the rise, including increases in poisonings, motor vehicle deaths and falls among older adults. All of these injuries are preventable, they say, arguing on their website that institutions “have not consistently prioritized safety at work, at home and on the road”. Poisonings, the leading unintentional injury among CDC data, increased 11 percent between 2016 and 2017 . The NSC attributes the growth to the opioid crisis, which claimed the lives of 47,000 Americans in 2017 .
To put the CDC data into perspective, 466 people die from accidental injuries every day The number of friends and family members affected by the death of a loved one is even higher, resulting in an ever-growing community of people who must find ways to manage their grief. Bio-One works with these families every day to facilitate their steps towards recovery.
When fatal accidents happen, we dedicate our resources to helping families restore their home or business in a safe, private and efficient manner. Because first responders do not decontaminate crime scenes after they respond to a call, we step in to ensure that families are not exposed to disease and other dangers. Crime scenes harbor harmful bloodborne pathogens that contaminate the immediate area, leaving everyone on the property vulnerable to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Our licensed technicians use powerful, environmentally safe chemicals to thoroughly disinfect the area so you can rest assured that your family will be safe. We work with an appreciation for your valuables and will replace furnishings if need be. In hoarding situations, we remove clutter that may present a danger to other inhabitants, including feces and other biological waste.
When you give us a call at your local Bio-One office, we’ll immediately connect you with a representative that will address your unique situation. Because we value your time during this difficult moment, a team will be dispatched to your home or business within an hour to complete the service. When they arrive, they’ll come in unmarked vehicles to safeguard your privacy. Our team approaches their work with the sensitivity it demands and endeavors to address your needs with the compassion it deserves. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We are on standby 24/7/365.
We’ve all seen images of hoarded homes on TV or heard stories of city officials evicting residents from their property because they’ve allowed too much junk to accumulate. It may be easy to dismiss hoarding behavior as pure laziness; people should know better than to allow their lives to be taken over by possessions, much of which is no more than junk. Yet to do so dismisses the possibility that such behavior may be beyond a person’s ability to control.
For the longest time, those who hoarded were classified as people who chose to live on the fringes of society, using their overgrown collections to keep people away. What wasn’t understood was the possible psychological cause behind such behavior. Now, it has been discovered that many of those who hoard also display the classic symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
What is OCD?
OCD is an anxiety disorder that is estimated to affect 1 in 40 adults, and 1 in 100 children have this condition. As the name implies, those who suffer from OCD have issues in dealing with both obsession and compulsions, which are defined as follows:
• Obsessions: Thoughts, images, or impulses that can cause anxiety or stress.
• Compulsions: Deliberate behaviors aimed at controlling one’s anxieties.
Many who suffer from OCD will repeat tasks over and over long after the objective is done. The repetition, which should be a comfort as a comfort to them, in many cases, has the opposite effect: it serves to convince them of the futility of their pursuit, causing them to experience depression. They then feel as though the only way to solve that depression is to keep repeating the task to excess.
Why OCD Can Cause Hoarding
In the case of hoarding, the hoarder feels as though their depression can only be solved through the accumulation of more “stuff.” That “stuff” can include:
• Clothing
• Collectibles
• Books
Or any number of items that many would term trash – newspapers,boxes, milk cartons, even recycling.
Yet, the more “stuff” a hoarder collects, the further away he or she feels from receiving comfort. Thus, the collecting goes into overdrive, reaching a point where the “stuff” fills all corners of their homes and lives, making it almost impossible to function.
In other cases, hoarders obsess over losing items, needing them in the future or have plans to use the item for another purpose, and thus choose to never discard them. In such cases, these people are often found to be living in trash piles. In these cases, hoarders may fight to keep their treasures from being thrown out.
How to Help a Hoarder
Hoarding is no laughing matter, and hoarders should not be subjected to mocking and ridicule. In many of the hoarding cleanup cases we’ve assisted with, a gentle hand extended in caring and friendship is all that’s needed to help hoarders move on with their lives and begin recovery. Bio-One even has clients that we help on a regular basis to help maintain their reclaimed homes.
Learn more about how Bio-One and Raleigh Hoarding can assist you or a family member who is struggling with hoarding by visiting our Hoarding Services webpage.
Karen & Rick Jacobs are the owners of Bio-One Raleigh and Raleigh Hoarding. We offer trauma, mold and hoarding cleanup services including biohazard, blood cleanup, suicide/homicide, feces & bodily fluid, animal waste, undiscovered death, and mold testing & remediation.
We proudly serve North Carolina’s Triangle and surrounding areas including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Apex, Pittsboro, Holly Springs, Clayton, Carrboro, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Hillsborough, Mebane, Morrisville, Wake Forest, and Wendell; as well as the following counties; Wake County, Durham County, Cumberland County, Guilford County, Orange County, Chatham County, Harnett County, Johnston County, Nash County, Franklin County and Pill County. We also provide services to Greensboro and other areas throughout North Carolina.
Bio-One Inc. is the world's first crime scene cleaning franchise. Nationally respected and locally owned, Bio-One has earned its reputation through being trusted to handle the Mandalay Bay mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in 2016, and consulted on the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In 2019, Bio-One was once again included in the best and most comprehensive franchise ranking list – Entrepreneur Magazine
