How long can germs live? (Only consider germs that are relatively common in Boston)

[Gauss44]

Okay, I have a weird question and I'm not 100% certain of the answer. A friend of mine wants to move into an apartment where the previous tenant died "after a long illness." According to my internet search, the previous tenant died about 2 years after his father died "peacefully in his sleep" which could mean from the same illness.

Of course, I feel bad for the family. That's awful! But as a friend, I'm also wondering if this apartment is safe to move into or if it might be carrying contagious germs that caused those deaths? I think it's a fair question.

Anyone?

(And "no" she isn't going to ask what they died from. There really isn't an occasion for that question and it would probably seem out of place and worse. And regarding my posting this here, to be blunt, moving is common and so is dying, so I figure this forum's a fair place for this thread too.

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[Gauss44]

There's no evidence that mold or genetics were or were not a factor. I go back to my original question in the OP. Let's consider the possibility that it was a contagious disease and that she has to sign a lease to move in.

Lol..well could the problem have been genetic? You said a father and a son right?

If it wasn't some sort of disease, then maybe it was mold that did them in. Not sure if you can die of mold inhalation though.

As for "germs"...I don't think it was that lol.

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/factsheets/mold.htm

"Infectious diseases from molds can occur in people with weakened immune systems, such as those who are immune-compromised or immune-suppressed from drug treatment. Some types of mold are known to cause infections in immune-compromised people. Such infections can affect the skin, eyes, lungs or other organs. These are considered opportunistic infections that usually do not affect healthy people."

 

[farinha]

Well whatever the answer, I guess better safe than sorry, right? There are ways to sanitize the place, aren't they?

 

[perienceniew]

i want to know,There are ways to sanitize the place, aren't they? thank you

 

[farinha]

Ok, from my hands-on experience (it wasn't Boston by a long shot but I suppose this could work anywhere). We had issues with germs and mold so we removed all the furniture and basically anything that was not too expensive to be binned. Wooden things are in my opinion especially dangerous, just as anything that is able to suck in air humidity and create a nice comfortable living space for germs. So all the fabric, clothes etc should be binned too. Then we painted the walls with lime. It's so old-fashioned but it works a treat. To clean the floors we used some quite common chlorinated cleaner (and a brush. You shouldn't be gentle in this case.). For windows and places with rubber parts (like shower or water taps..) we used some non-chlorinated bactericide cleaner (Ask in some drugstore I guess. Chlorine slowly destroys rubber, makes sort of pores and cracks in it and some germs could start living in these cracks... so that's why we did it like this).

Then we bought new furniture etc.

It's a lot of hard work, oh and it's actually quite important to clean "hidden" places like the space between the rubber edge and the glassy wall in the shower.