Two Hospitals in Liberia Deploy Germ-Killing Robots to Deal Ebola Virus

Two 5-foot-5 superbug-slaying machines were deployed from the United States yesterday en route to JFK Hospital and ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Republic of Liberia, where they will aid in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus outbreak.

The devices, known as TRU-D SmartUVC(TM), will help disinfect health care environments where Ebola patients are being treated. TRU-D is the only portable UV disinfection device on the market with Sensor360™ technology, which calculates the time needed to react to room variables – such as size, geometry, surface reflectivity and the amount and location of equipment in the room – and effectively deliver a lethal dose of UV-C light during a single cycle from a single, central location in the room. It works by generating UV light energy that modifies the DNA structure of viral pathogens, like Ebola, so that they cannot reproduce. Viruses that cannot reproduce cannot colonize and harm patients. Additionally, TRU-D has been validated by more than 10 studies to be 99.99 percent effective in eliminating the most common pathogens that cause health care-associated infections.

The Ebola virus is the cause of a viral hemorrhagic fever disease that is highly contagious through bodily fluid transmission. Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, weakness, achiness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite and abdominal bleeding.

The CDC stresses that diligent environmental disinfection and safe handling of potentially contaminated materials is paramount in settings where patients with the Ebola virus have been, as blood, sweat, emesis, feces and other body secretions represent potentially infectious materials. In an effort to eliminate Ebola at the source, the use of innovative disinfection technology, such as TRU-D, is crucial to guaranteeing a pathogen-free environment for patients and health care staff.

Dr. Jeffery L. Deal, TRU-D's inventor and a Fellow in the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, will travel to the Republic of Liberia on Monday, Aug. 18 to lead the deployment of both TRU-D units by training hospital staff to operate the devices in a number of hospital environments and monitor progress for successful disinfection.

Deal will join dozens of disease specialists dispatched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help stop the spread of the largest recorded outbreak of the Ebola virus in history. Both TRU-D units that will be used in the Liberian hospitals were just released from a 28-month-long CDC-funded study conducted by the Duke University Prevention Epicenter Program, the most comprehensive evaluation of the real-world application of UV-C disinfection to date.

"We developed TRU-D SmartUVC technology to combat the devastating effects of hospital acquired infections," Deal said. "Unlike many diseases, Ebola strikes hospital workers more than any other group, making it the ultimate hospital acquired infection."

With TRU-D, health care leaders in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Saudi Arabia are eliminating pathogens like Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), influenza, norovirus, Clostridium difficile (C. diff.), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in all types of health care settings, including isolation wards, patient rooms, operating rooms, surgical suites, intensive care units, emergency rooms, public areas and ambulances.

"We know through extensive CDC-funded research specific to TRU-D conducted by thought leaders in epidemiology and infection prevention that TRU-D is effective at eliminating any pathogen by delivering a precisely measured UVC dose," said Chuck Dunn, president and CEO of TRU-D SmartUVC, LLC. "As soon as we knew we could aid struggling hospitals in Liberia, our team came together and formulated a plan to get TRU-D on the ground. With the help of the Liberian government and Dr. Deal's on-the-ground expertise, we know TRU-D is going to make an impact at JFK and ELWA Hospitals."