Robots With Ultra-Bright Lights Deployed To Fight Deadly Mushrooms

News

By Jacob Geanous

April 22, 2023 | 8:55

At least half a dozen New York-area hospitals are using $100,000 robots that deploy high-intensity light to fight a deadly drug-resistant fungus spreading across the country and state.

Xenex UV LightingStrike robots have a 99% success rate in stopping the spread of Candida auris, the potentially deadly drug-resistant fungus first identified in Japan in 2009, according to research by Netcare Hospitals.

Last year, New York State saw a record number of cases of Candida auris, a “diabolical” fungal infection that can cause sepsis if it enters the bloodstream.

Xenex Disinfection Services — which told the Post it has disinfectant robots at local hospitals and at least 130 veterans hospitals nationwide — sought Federal Drug Administration approval earlier this year to the device that uses xenon light, commonly found in vehicle headlights.

The light is 4,300 times more intense than the standard bulb and kills germs faster than mercury-based UV bulbs in other machines, according to the company.

“That’s the difference between a Porsche and a (Ford) Model A,” said company CEO Morris Miller.

The company said the robots are currently in use at local hospitals, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which has locations in the New York area, North Shore University Hospital on Long Island, and Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow. .

Miller also said the robots were designed by two epidemiologists.

Morris said his company’s robot can be used to disinfect a hospital room in about 10 minutes.

“On a super-serious, scary pathogen, you’re talking 15 minutes (on) the left (side of the room), 15 minutes (on the) right (side of the room), you’re done,” Morris said. .

Dr. Donna Armellino, infection control specialist at Northwell Health, said she and her colleagues use UV devices, including Xenex robots and similar devices from Leviant Inc, in addition to traditional cleaning methods.

Armellino said the robots are also used in neonatal intensive care units.

Armellino added that the federal government has yet to set standards for UV devices and there is still a lot to learn about the devices, as well as the best ways to use them.

“There needs to be more literature and controlled studies,” she said.