I have a strange issue and need some help from those with a better understanding.

[cf879]

Hello everyone,

 

Unfortunately, I have suffered from some mild coprophobia (fear of feces) for the better part of my life, but have had it completely under control for many years. An event has ocurred that is causing the OCD symtoms on a major scale and I'm hoping that I can get it under control simply by learning more about fecal contamination and what the risk actually is. Here is what happened:

 

My mother has MS and her caregiver (her sister) who was living with her apparently had a schizophrenic break this past week. My aunt has had issues with bowel control for years but was taking care of it with Depends etc. When she had the schizophrenic break, it took about a week for anyone to come and take her to the hospital during which time she had become unaware of her bowel control problem and, according to my mother, wore the same feces-stained pants everyday for a week while she went about the house, sitting on all the furniture etc. and even sleeping in her bed that had a pile of feces in it. My mother was unable to do anything to take care of it or clean up due to her MS. My aunt has now been in the hospital for a week, so the last time she was exposing anything to her feces was about a week ago. They also have two cats who may or may not have been laying in the bed with feces in it. I now have to go to their house to help my mother until we can find another caretaker. Her room has been closed shut and her son will be coming to clean that up at some point. As far as the rest of the house and microbiology is concerned, do I have anything to fear? What should my concerns be? Is there any way to decontaminate the house and does it even matter if I do so? I really don't enjoy the idea of spending time in a house where someone was getting their poop all over, but if there is no real risk of anything from it at this point, I won't worry as much. The problem is that my aunt hasn't led the most sanitary life. She was a drug addict for years and had genital warts from apparent unprotected sex. It's possible she could have had hepatits or something else fecally transmissable.

 

Those with an understanding of fecal microbiology, please help! What would you do????

Edited August 26, 2013 by cf879

[Moontanman]

Blue rubber gloves, a face mask and lots of disinfectant should do the trick...