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The President of the United States proposes to irradiate crown patients with “very strong light.” But experts recommend caution.
The longer the crown crisis lasts, the more people wait for ways to fight the virus. Now, scientists from the US government. USA They want to have observed in an experiment that direct sunlight apparently kills the pathogen quickly: the supposedly fatal effect of UV rays on the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is due to both airborne spread of the virus and surfaces William Bryan, a science and technology adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday in a briefing with Trump.
In doing so, it fueled hopes that the spread of the pathogen could decrease in the summer months. The study has not yet been published and has not yet been evaluated by other researchers. United States President Donald Trump suggested that doctors could irradiate patients with “ultraviolet” or “very strong” light, or bring light “through the skin or otherwise into the body.” “That sounds interesting”.
There have recently been increasing reports of the effects of UV radiation on fighting the virus. For UVC radiation, this is generally true for disinfecting objects, but for a layman, the use of UVC rays, for example to disinfect masks, is not appropriate.
WHO advises against UV lamps for disinfection
There are three types of UV radiation: UVA, UVB, and UVC. The first two are known for their simple sun exposure. Overexposure to the sun is harmful to the skin and can cause skin cancer. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) discourages the use of UV lamps to disinfect hands or other skin areas in the crown crisis.
UVC is even more dangerous, but the ozone layer prevents it from reaching the earth’s surface. This third form is theoretically capable of destroying genetic material, such as that of virus particles, the BBC reported. Therefore, UVC radiation could be used to disinfect objects. In some areas of China this even happens. However, this is not realistic for individuals, because there are still no studies that provide information on exactly how UVC affects the coronavirus.
Duration of necessary exposure unclear
A 2004 study by the Journal of Virological Methods examined radiation from the SARS virus related to SARS-CoV-2 and concluded that “more than 15 minutes of UVC treatment inactivated the virus while exposed to UVA light regardless of the duration of exposure had no effect on permeability. ” SARS-CoV-2 lacks these results. It is unclear how long the virus must be exposed to UVC radiation here. In addition, adequate equipment and training would be required for its use. The use of UV radiation to disinfect masks or other objects is extremely unsafe.
Exposing yourself or an object to the sun’s rays, that is, UVA or UVB radiation, is also not convenient. Because the necessary duration is not clear here either, according to the time of day, the weather, the season and the place. And once the virus is in the body, UV radiation no longer helps anyway. For this reason, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, once again made the experts shake their heads with “light therapy” for the sick. However, there is still hope that the spread of the pathogen may decrease in the summer months.
(APA)
