Author(s)

Waheeb E. Alnaser^1*, Amjad Z. Ghanem², Naser W. Alnaser³, Hacene Manaa¹, Qasim Alaraibi², Fatima Alshaikh²

¹Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain.
²Public Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.
³Department of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain.

Some manufactures made UVC LED Strip as disinfection tool against SARS-CoV2. Therefore, three types of commercially UVC lights were used to evaluate their efficiency to warp bacteria and viruses. We tested three commercially available UV lights devices. They were put at 4 to 5 cm to spiked sterile Petri dishes (samples) for 10, 20, 30, and 60 seconds and compared it to control (without UV light exposure). Also, the same three UV LED devices were used on Positive SARS-CoV2 swab samples (used for the Petri dishes). Serial dilutions of the cultured microbes were used for the experiment as follows: 1/10 (high concertation), 1/100, 1/1000, 1/10,000, 1/100,000 (low concertation). All three UV LED devices (DA, DB, DC) were found to have no effects on the pathogens (Bacteria or SARS-CoV2), even to the lowest Bacteria Concentration (1/100,000), when pathogens were exposed to UV radiation for 10, 20, 30, and 60 sec at distance a 4 to 5 cm. One of the manufacturers of these UVC lights (DB) claims that the device is very effective in killing Bacteria and Virus immediately at a 99.93% killing rate (in 20 sec.). This observation was not noticed. False claims may lead to severe spread of SARS-CoV2 as customers may think that the DB was disinfecting, after short exposure, while truly having no effect.

COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, Pathogens, UV Light Devices, UVC, Bahrain

Alnaser, W. , Ghanem, A. , Alnaser, N. , Manaa, H. , Alaraibi, Q. and Alshaikh, F. (2020) Do UV LED Devices Immolate SARS-CoV2?. Health, 12, 1445-1456. doi: 10.4236/health.2020.1211105.