HealthDay Reports: UV Light Won't Treat COVID-19 — But It Might Disinfect Medical Gear
UV-C radiation can kill microbes, and new testing is being done at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City to see how this process could help disinfect N95 masks.
UV Light Won't Treat COVID-19 — But It Might Disinfect Medical Gear
TUESDAY, April 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Supplies of personal protective equipment remain scarce across the United States, especially the N95 respirator masks that health care workers use to protect themselves from the new coronavirus.
To help extend the useful life of available equipment, researchers and hospitals are turning to a long-known, if little-used, means of disinfection -- ultraviolet radiation.
"It's generally well known that UV-C radiation kills microbes," said Bob Karlicek Jr., director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "What's not known is the specific quantities of UV-C radiation that is required to fully disinfect complex equipment like N95 masks, because you have to get the light to the inside of the mask."
Karlicek led a team that created a UV-C system designed to disinfect N95 masks. It's being tested at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
President Donald Trump was ridiculed last week after publicly speculating that UV light could be used to treat COVID-19 infection inside the human body.