Bug Zapper Kills COVID-19 Virus
St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration results in clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, Zappify Bug Zapper site generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an unbelievable feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and other entrance-line organizations jumped to secure giant portions of life-saving provides and personal protecting tools (PPE), there has also been the need to identify quicker, extra environment friendly methods to wash and sterilize those items, particularly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an concept began to form. "It became clear that PPE supplies would turn out to be limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and medical instruments are despatched to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes function that's a necessary a part of the health care system. "On any given day, we're processing many, many gadgets right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, St. Luke’s Network Director of Sterile Processing.
"But with the current scenario, there's an overwhelming must process our employees’ PPE each day. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - actually and figuratively. "I had been doing private research about finding ways to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature urged that, in a pandemic, UV-C gentle could be an appropriate technique to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular vary of UV, or extremely-violet, mild and has been proven to deactivate viruses and different pathogens by inflicting adjustments of their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher got in contact with Nelson Tansu, PhD, Lehigh University’s Director and Endowed Chair of its Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN). "What St. Luke’s was searching for was a high-throughput sterilization system," said Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces by a series of Zoom conferences and a whole lot of emails, to design, fabricate, set up and check the gadget - all within a matter of two weeks - and all whereas maintaining social distancing protocols.
The end end result: a option to successfully and efficiently sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Zappify Bug Zapper site Zapper" in motion. "Our current models were not designed for big-scale use. They could solely sterilize about 30 masks at a time," said Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the challenge. The unit, engineered by Lehigh students and workers and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not only attributable to its look, but because of its COVID-killing properties. "It is incredible that this mission moved at such a fast pace," remarks Dr. Tansu. The team ranged from PhDs to MDs and even included an unexpected contributor - Axel Tansu, Dr. Tansu’s adolescent son. In truth, it was Axel’s contribution that allowed the unit to have such a excessive-throughput fee. "Our authentic design was cylindrical in shape, to make sure even exposure of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.
"Axel got here to me and mentioned, ‘Dad, what about an octagon? ’ And positive enough, he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s intellectual design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to meet, in-person, shall be deliberate once it is protected to do so. Until then, the Bug Zapper will probably be arduous at work, serving to to protect the frontline staff at St. Luke’s and past. This, like so many different tales, provides a ray of hope during the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome something - especially when working together for a terrific trigger. Afterall, because the famous philosopher Plato understood hundreds of years in the past, necessity is the mom of invention. Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully built-in, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 workers offering services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual internet revenue better than $2 billion, the Network’s service space consists of eleven counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.