Abstract
Faced with a global pandemic such as the one triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the medical supply chain has been highly demanded. An item in which this manifested itself more clearly, are the N95 masks, designed to be disposable items, in many cases they have had to be reused. In these emergency conditions, it was necessary to apply an effective and safe method that can be used locally. Here a device for disinfection by ultraviolet C light was developed that allows irradiating N95 masks with a known and reproducible dose. Thus being able to apply a safe and effective disinfection method according to existing information. The use of a common model of UV-C lamps and the simple construction of the device allows it to be built at low cost and with widely available materials. The effectiveness of the device was demonstrated against an enveloped RNA virus, characteristics shared with the virus that causes COVID19, being capable of reducing the viral load by 4 orders of magnitude.
Highlights
Faced with a global pandemic such as the one triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the medical supply chain has been highly demanded
The effectiveness of the device was demonstrated against an enveloped RNA virus, characteristics shared with the virus that causes COVID19, being capable of reducing the viral load by 4 orders of magnitude
This kind of radiation has been used since the XX century as a disinfecting agent and the availability of powerful enough UV-C lamps has allowed the development of open source devices for room disinfection [17]
Summary
The N95 masks are articles designated to be disposable elements, they always should be used in this way when there is a normal supply of them. It could be the reason because the UV-C radiation is so effective to destroy pathogens like viruses [16] This kind of radiation has been used since the XX century as a disinfecting agent and the availability of powerful enough UV-C lamps has allowed the development of open source devices for room disinfection [17]. With this idea in mind, facing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and with the need to disinfect N95 masks, protocols for the use of environmental irradiators to disinfect these masks emerged [18]. In this article design files are provided to build and industrialize our device, a wide characterization of the device’s performance is provided
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