Bug Zapper Kills COVID-19 Virus
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St. Luke’s, Lehigh University collaboration leads to clever, life-saving invention. BETHLEHEM, PA. - Among tales of hope, generosity and togetherness, the COVID-19 pandemic has also given rise to an incredible feat of ingenuity - the invention of the "Bug Zapper" to sterilize masks. As hospitals and different front-line organizations jumped to safe massive portions of life-saving supplies and private protective gear (PPE), Zap Zone Defender USA there has additionally been the necessity to identify quicker, more environment friendly methods to scrub and sterilize these gadgets, significantly the coveted N95 masks. St. Luke’s University Health Network anesthesiologist, Christopher Roscher, MD, anticipated the need and an thought started to type. "It turned clear that PPE supplies would develop into limited because the virus progressed," he says. The St. Luke’s Sterile Processing Department, or SPD, is the place the place all surgical and mosquito zapper medical devices are sent to be meticulously cleaned, sanitized and packaged for reuse. It’s a behind-the-scenes perform that is an essential part of the well being care system. "On any given day, we are processing many, many gadgets right here at our hospital in Bethlehem," states Taylor Bennett, Zap Zone Defender St. Luke’s Network Director Zap Zone Defender USA of Sterile Processing.


"But with the current situation, there's an overwhelming have to course of our employees’ PPE every day. For Dr. Roscher, a gentle went on - literally and figuratively. "I had been doing personal research about finding methods to decontaminate masks for reuse, and peer-reviewed literature steered that, in a pandemic, UV-C light could possibly be an appropriate strategy to sterilize masks," he says. UV-C is a particular range of UV, or ultra-violet, gentle and has been proven to deactivate viruses and other pathogens by causing adjustments in their DNA. Through a mutual contact, Dr. Roscher obtained in touch with Nelson Tansu, PhD, Lehigh University’s Director and Endowed Chair of its Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (CPN). "What St. Luke’s was looking for was a high-throughput sterilization system," said Dr. Tansu. The two organizations joined forces via a sequence of Zoom conferences and tons of of emails, to design, fabricate, install and take a look at the gadget - all inside a matter of two weeks - and all while maintaining social distancing protocols.


The end end result: a option to successfully and effectively sterilize 200 masks every 8 minutes! The "Bug Zapper" in motion. "Our present items weren't designed for large-scale use. They could only sterilize about 30 masks at a time," said Eric Tesoriero, DO, anesthesiologist for St. Luke’s and a collaborator on the venture. The unit, engineered by Lehigh college students and employees and assembled at St. Luke’s by biomedical engineer Jay Johnson, has been affectionally named the "Bug Zapper" not solely on account of its look, however attributable to its COVID-killing properties. "It is unimaginable that this venture moved at such a fast velocity," remarks Dr. Tansu. The workforce 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 high-throughput price. "Our original design was cylindrical in form, to make sure even publicity of the sunshine on all surfaces," explains Dr. Tansu.


"Axel came to me and said, ‘Dad, insect zapper what about an octagon? ’ And positive sufficient, he was proper. A patent to guard the team’s mental design has been filed. And a celebration for the collaborators to satisfy, in-person, will be deliberate once it's safe to take action. Until then, Zap Zone Defender the Bug Zapper will probably be exhausting at work, serving to to protect the frontline staff at St. Luke’s and beyond. This, like so many different stories, gives a ray of hope during the pandemic - showcasing that the human mind and spirit can overcome anything - especially when working collectively for an ideal trigger. Afterall, as the well-known 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 completely integrated, regional, non-revenue community of greater than 15,000 employees offering providers at eleven hospitals and 300 outpatient websites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service space includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Zap Zone Defender System Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.