Worried whether you should hire a professional biohazard cleaning team or not? Read on to find out the health effects of not cleaning biohazard materials properly.
Dealing with biohazardous waste is a complicated task that requires professional skill and expertise. Due to the nature of the material, mishandling biohazard waste can lead to the spread of infections and diseases. This is why it’s imperative to hire professional cleaners to remove biohazard waste from your private property or hospital.
Biohazard waste includes needles and other sharp surgical objects, such as scalpels, body fluids, such as saliva, semen, pleural fluid, blood, pathological waste, such as human tissue or waste biopsy material, and microbiological waste, such as viruses and discarded living cultures.
When handled improperly, you can contract bacterial illnesses and harmful pathogens from biohazard materials. The health risks that are involved in biohazard cleanup include some pretty scary and often incurable diseases. This is why improper biohazard cleaning can even turn out to be life-threatening at times. HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C are some pretty common diseases that you can contract from biohazard material.
Here are the key health effects or risks that are a part of biohazard cleanup:
HIV Leading to AIDS
Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV is a pretty major illness that you can get from improper handling of biohazardous materials. HIV can lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which is incurable. You can easily contract this virus if you come into direct contact with biohazardous waste such as the blood, semen, or even breast milk of a person who had it. Once contracted, the virus targets your body’s immune system and terminates T cells, which are beneficial immune cells responsible for protecting your body from various pathogens and cancerous cells. The virus keeps at it until your body is weak and unable to fight off even the most common and non-threatening infections.
Hepatitis
Hepatitis A, B, and C are all degrees of swelling and inflammation in the liver. Hepatitis is easily spread via contact with human blood. You can also contract Hepatitis A and B through other bodily fluids. The least harmful one is Hepatitis as it only seriously affects aged individuals. Additionally, it goes away on its own. However, chronic HBV and HCV have the potential to lead to serious illnesses such as liver failure, liver cancer, and cirrhosis, which is progressive liver scarring.
- Coli
Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli, is a bacterium that lives inside the bowels. You can easily contract this bacterium via various bodily fluids. Even though adults with a strong immune system are able to recover from E. coli, senior citizens and young children with compromised and underdeveloped immune systems can face some serious health consequences. They might develop a fatal form of kidney failure or hemolytic uremic syndrome, a group of troublesome blood disorders.
Due to the aforementioned health risks, it’s vital to hire a professional cleanup team to handle a biohazard waste.
