How Long Do Spores Live Outside Body?

[hondaguy]

Good afternoon:

My mother had C. Difficile that was kept in check by Vancomycin. She passed away in Dec. 2014.

We have a high quality upholstered recliner chair my mother sat in. Although there is no obvious soiling of the chair, we are concerned about C. Difficile spores. We would not want to sell or donate the chair if the C. Difficile spores could still be viable and thus the infection could be passed on. I did some web research and found two references, one citing a spore viability of 5 months, and the other stating years (references below).

The chair has been sitting in the house since my Mother passed (about 5.5 years ago). Do you have more definitive information on whether this time period would have resulted in spore death and thus made the chair safe to sell or donate?. Or is the spore life greater than 5.5 years and thus the chair should be discarded?

Thank you,

Kevin

References:
●MN Dept. of Health: These organisms can survive on dry environmental surfaces from several hours to years.
●Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2014: C. difficile spores can be shed to the environment by both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and may survive for up to 5 months on inanimate surfaces

[roy]

C.diff spores are everywhere.
1 in 4 pairs of shoes 1 in 4 doorsteps , busses, trains, supermarket carts, even on lots of food!
After 5 years a chair is little to no risk.