The Ebowla in the Disinfection of the Ebola virus in the developing world

YOUNGWOOD, Pa. - Dec. 1, 2014 - PRLog -- .
Background
The Ebola virus outbreak is a worldwide concern. Governments have instituted quarantine measures for communities and individuals that are affected by the Ebola outbreak. In the United States, the CDC has issued guidelines for how Ebola is to be disinfected in hospital and healthcare centers. CDC stands for Center for Disease Control. Currently, robotic UVGI systems are proposed to decontaminate healthcare facilities. UVGI stands for Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiant. Hospital staff controls the robot, but vacate the room during the application of UVGI light pulses that continue for 5 minutes.

Greater flexibility than robots is provided with hand-held UVGI systems [1] that allow mobile and rapid disinfection of Ebola on surfaces and the surrounding air. Electrically powered 400 W hand-held devices producing a blade-like UV-C light beam (50 mm wide x 500 mm high) achieves 99% reduction of the Ebola virus in 5 seconds. Large areas are decontaminated using slow scanning of the UV-C light beam.

The UVGI systems disinfect Ebola including Tuberculosis and Lassa by irradiating surfaces and air using 254 nm UV-C light. But UV-C disinfection may be used for other pathogens, e.g., the CDC states that “about 1 in 20 patients [2] have an infection while receiving health care treatment in U.S. hospitals.” Disinfecting health care facilities of all pathogens is challenging scientists to develop more advanced technology for better disinfection.

Problem
The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa highlights the inability of countries in the developing world to control the spread of the Ebola virus. Indeed, the protocol for Ebola disinfection available in the U.S. is too complex and costly. Simply put, lack of money has hampered healthcare facilities and personnel from controlling the spread of the Ebola. In the developing world, robotic and manually operated UVGI systems in the U.S. are simply too costly let alone requiring sources of electricity which are usually not available. The developing world needs an inexpensive alternative to control Ebola that does not require electricity.

Proposal
QED induced EM radiation from body heat in hand-held nano-coated bowls called Ebowlas is proposed to provide the UV-C from which Ebola on surfaces or in the air may be disinfected inexpensively without electrical power. QED stands for quantum electrodynamics and EM for electromagnetic. The 80 mm diameter Ebowla forms a cylindrical beam of UV-C light for disinfection. The protocol is to scan  holding the Ebowla in one hand as illustrated in the thumbnail. In principle, the Ebowla is similar to the recently disclosed hand-held water bowl that uses body heat to kill water borne pathogens in drinking water, again without the need for electricity. See Press Release in QED induced water purification at http://www.nanoqed.org , 2015.

Theory and Analysis
UV-C disinfection occurs as the body heat from the hand of the person holding the Ebowla is transferred to the nano-coating. Because of QM, the body heat cannot increase the temperature of the coating as its heat capacity vanishes under TIR confinement. QM stands for quantum mechanics and TIR for total internal reflection. Instead, the heat is conserved by QED inducing the heat to be converted to QED induced EM radiation at the TIR frequency of the coating. See numerous QED applications,Ibid, 2010-2015

The TIR confinement only occurs as body heat flows into the nano-coating, i.e., absent body heat there is no TIR confinement and UV-C radiation is not produced.  The TIR wavelength λ of the EM radiation is, λ = 2 n d, where, n and d are the refractive index and thickness of the coating. Any suitable coating may be used. However, TIR requires the coating have a refractive index n greater than that of the Ebowla.. For a zinc oxide coating having n = 2, QED induces the creation of EM radiation in the UV-C at λ = 254 nm for a coating having thickness d = 63.5 nm.

The Planck energy E of the UV-C is, E = h c / λ, where h is Planck’s constant and c the velocity of light. For UV-C light, E = 3.82 x10^-18 J = 4.89 eV. The rate R of UV-C photons created is, R = Q / E. where Q is the body heat from the hand transferred into the nano-coating. Available body heat Q may be estimated [3] from the total body heat of about 100 W distributed over the average surface area for adult men and women of 1.75 m² giving Q = 5.71 mW / cm². Hence, the rate R of QED induced UV-C created is, R = 1.5 x10¹⁵ / cm²-s.

Guidelines [4] for the minimum UV-C intensity necessary to kill the Ebola virus suggests a dose of 0.4 mJ / cm² over a 0 to 30 s duration. For 1 s durations, the required UV-C power is 0.4 mW / cm². Since Q = 5.71 mW / cm² is far greater than the power required for Ebola disinfection, the 80 mm diameter Ebowla using 1 second back and forth scanning is capable of disinfecting large areas of rooms in healthcare facilities.

Conclusion
The QED induced UV-C radiation from the Ebowla is especially suited for disinfecting Ebola in the developing world that lacks sources of electricity. Costs are minimal allowing the Ebowla to be distributed to individuals by governments without costs. Moreover, the Ebowla may also be used to disinfect drinking water. But even in the developed world, the Ebowla would allow simple germicidal disinfection for nurses in hospitals or the public in their homes as well as assuring drinking water is free of pathogens. Where drinking water disinfection is not so important, the Ebowla may be replaced with a flat nano-coated surface, say carried in the pocket of a nurse or worn as a badge.

Extensions
Ebola disinfection by QED induced UV-C from body heat using hand-held Ebowlas is new, but not the use of body heat to power electronics. Recently, body heat in holding a flashlight was shown [5] to produce light. Peltier cells were built into the flashlight's casing to absorb body heat from a person's hand. Although QED induced radiation is far more efficient than the Peltier effect, only monochromatic light for a given coating thickness is produced. Therefore, using QED to make, say red or blue flashlights is possible, but not white light comprising a mix of frequencies. Whether the nano-coating thickness can be structured to produce QED induced white light remains to shown.

References
[1] BBH, UV light technology, “UV hand-held lamp kills Ebola in seconds,” Oct. 17, 2014
[2] IUVA, Ultraviolet-C Promises to be an Excellent Disinfection Technology For Use in Addressing Ebola Virus and other Hospital Acquired Infections, Oct. 17, 2014.
[3] Wikipedia, “Surface Body Area,”  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[4] F. Vatansever, et al., “Can biowarfare agents be defeated with light?,”Virulence 4, 796–825; 2013.
[5] T. Nguyen, “This Flashlight Is Powered by the Touch of Your Hand,” Smithsonian.com, March 24, 2014