What would you do?

[kxmeeh]

We are traveling to disney as an all girl's trip in July. This is something that is very important for me to do because of my sister. she has a blood disease and I want to go now while she can still enjoy all the rides. We are bringing her wheelchair to do the parks...between fatigue, her osteoporosis (?), and not able to walk stairs it is necessary. Here's my question...she also has hepetitis c. she's had it since she was 3 (back before screenings for those who donate blood for transfusions) and is now 37, so WE know how to act, ordered bleach for the room just incase she gets a cut, ect. What should I put down on the reservation? I would hope the mousekeepers always wear gloves no matter what room they are in, but I also don't want them to not clean or be scared when they are in our room.

 

[SueM in MN]

You don't need to tell them anything. If you are cleaning up any visible blood and then disinfecting the area where the blood had been, your room is no more 'risky' than the room of any other guest.

I am a hospital Infection Control Specialist and we don't do anything special for patients who we know have things like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV/AIDS that can be spread by contact with blood (these are called Bloodborne Pathogens).

For Hepatitis C, the correct type of precautions to use are called Standard Precautions. Those are the "standard" or usual precautions for all cleaning and were set up to protect workers from Bloodborne Pathogens. The reason for making them standard is that the people who are know to have a bloodborne pathogen are just a small number of the people who actually have one.

Standard Precautions include wearing gloves for contact with blood or body fluid. Housekeepers usually are wearing gloves in any case because of contact with the chemicals they use.
Housekeeping in hotels don't come under the same types of guidelines as hospital housekeepers, but the hotels are responsible for teaching staff about Standard Precautions if those staff are reasonably anticipated to have contact with blood or body fluids.
But, like I said first, if you clean up and disinfect any blood, it won't be a problem and the Housekeeper won't be at risk.