Germ-Zapping Robot Could Fight Ebola and Other Deadly Viruses

A new germ-zapping robot could help stop the
spread of deadly viruses, like Ebola, in hospitals
and other health care facilities in the United
States.
Standing a little more than 5 feet (1.5 meters)
tall, the robot — nicknamed "Saul" — uses
pulses of high-intensity, high-energy ultraviolet
rays to split open bacterial cell walls and kill
dangerous pathogens, said Geri Genant, a health
care services implementation manager with
Xenex, the company that developed the robot.
A surgical team at the U.S. Air Force Hospital
Langley in Hampton, Virginia, was recently
trained to use the virus-destroying robot, which
can kill a single strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA)
— similar to that of the Ebola virus— in less than
5 minutes, Genant said.
"Hospitals that have used this have been able to
bring infection rates down, in many cases [by] 60
percent," Genant said in a statement . The
hospitals Genant was referring to were
presumably not those affected by the Ebola
epidemic.
The robot's latest pit stop, Langley Air Force
Base, is home to the U.S. military's 633rd
Medical Group, a group of service members who
recently returned from an assignment in West
Africa. There, they were charged with setting up
a medical support facility in one of the West
African countries hardest hit by the Ebola
outbreak, according to the Air Force. The team
also trained international health care workers on
how to use the facility's equipment.
Although the 633rd Medical Group allegedly had
no exposure to the Ebola virus or to Ebola
victims during its time in Africa, the U.S. military
is still taking every precaution to prevent Ebola
from spreading in the U.S. , should one or more
of the military's recently returned service
members fall ill with the virus. Everyone involved
with the mission is being monitored twice daily
for three weeks after their return to the U.S., and
so far, no symptoms of the virus have been
reported.
The new virus-killing robot at Langley Air Force
Base is an added precaution that provides
patients, as well as medical staff, with an
additional measure of safety, said Marlene
Kerchenski, the 633rd MDG surgeon general chief
of nursing services.
Staff members wearing proper protection
equipment traditionally clean hospital rooms at
Langley using chemicals that are known to kill
harmful viruses, bacteria and fungi. However,
these pathogens can still linger in some areas,
according to Air Force officials. The Ebola virus,
for example, can survive on dry surfaces — like
doorknobs and countertops — for several hours if
those areas are not properly disinfected,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
But Saul the robot's ultraviolet rays, which are
25,000 times brighter than florescent lights, can
kill the pathogens that human hands miss,
according to officials at Xenex.
"Xenex has tested its full spectrum disinfection
system on 22 microorganisms, studying nearly
2,000 samples in several independent labs all
over the world," Genant said. The bot can
destroy viruses similar to Ebola with an
efficiency rate of 99.9 percent, she added.
Hospital staff at Langley will continue to receive
training on the proper use of the disinfecting
robot, which will soon be used to help eradicate
and control viruses throughout the hospital.