Germ-zapping robots that use a pulsed xenon ultraviolet light system clean hospital rooms about as well as manual cleaning, according to research from the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Round Rock.
Chetan Jinadatha, MD — assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and chief of infectious diseases at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple — is among the first to study the UV light system since it was introduced in 2011.
Dr. Jinadatha conducted a study last year that found manual cleaning plus UV light killed more than 90 percent of the bacteria, compared to 70 percent with manual cleaning alone. Additionally, manual disinfection plus UV light killed 99 percent of the bacteria that cause methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
More recently, Dr. Jinadatha examined the efficacy of UV light disinfection by itself and found the xenon UV light system reduced the amount of bacteria in the room by about 70 percent in about 12 minutes — roughly the same level of effectiveness as manual disinfection.
Dr. Jinadatha noted that he would never recommend that the UV light system be used by itself in hospitals. However, the system does have value as a "safety net" to kill bacteria that traditional cleaning may miss.
Currently, 40 VA hospitals and approximately 200 private hospitals across the country use the system and Dr. Jinadatha foresees it becoming standard equipment in all hospitals in the future.
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