Media Release

Mangaluru, Apr 15: Necessity is the mother of invention. In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers at NITK, Surathkal are proving to be the real heroes by providing various techniques to deal with the coronavirus and those infected by it. The researchers have come up with a simple technique to disinfect the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, surgical masks, vegetables, packed food items, currency notes and other day to day items without causing any harm to themselves.

The masks, face shields and PPE kits are under high demand by doctors and medical staff. In few places, including USA, the medical staff staged protests to get these PPE kits to deal with COVID-19 patients. The researchers said that most nations affected with the pandemic also faced scarcity of these kits.

Dr Arun M Isloor, professor and head, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, along with research scholar Syed Ibrahim have developed a disinfection chamber named ZERO-COV. The purpose of this chamber is to control surface contamination of bacteria and viruses including COVID-19. The chamber, built out of an old refrigerator, was handed over to Prof K Uma Maheshwar Rao, director, NITK and his wife Neeraja Rao, headmistress of Kendriya Vidyalaya
No 2, Yekkur at their residence on Monday. Prof MS Bhat, dean, Faculty Welfare, Prof Anantanarayanan, deputy director and Prof Sripathi Acharya, dean, Research were present at the event.

Research done on the experiences gathered from the European countries and USA showed that the healthcare providers were burdened with the additional responsibility of washing these disposable items themselves for reuse. The NITK researchers decided to come up with a simple solution to fight this crisis in India. Moreover, this could be used in every household, as a preventive measure in the spread of COVID-19.

With the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, people are advised to wash their hands regularly, keep their surroundings clean and maintain social distancing. However, items purchased from the market such as bottles, vegetables, books, readymade food items, toys, and even currency notes might be contaminated by the coronavirus. While things like vegetables can be disinfected by dipping in disinfectant solution, there is no way of disinfecting items like currency notes. “By placing items including vegetables, currency notes in the disinfection chamber for 15 minutes one can ensure destruction or inactivation of bacteria and viruses by 99.9%. The technology used here is UV-C radiation, which has a wavelength of 254 nanometers, which can destroy the nucleic acids of any germs present on the surfaces. UV technology is well
proven and accepted by the scientific community and WHO has recommended this technology for surface disinfection. This is commonly used as disinfection in hospitals, laboratories and water treatment plants,” Dr Isloor said.

According to Dr Isloor, soon after switching on the ZERO-COV, it must be closed completely, as direct UV-C radiation can cause harmful effects on the human body. He utilized an old unused refrigerator as the chamber and three Ultraviolet C lamps, each of them consuming 11 watts of electricity. “A small chamber prepared using a single UV lamp will cost around Rs 500. This chamber can be made up of any unused material made of metal, plastic or wood. This can be placed at the entrance of the house or office.” He added that this technology does not demand any toxic agents and chemicals and is easy to transport. Dr Isloor has volunteered to technically assist any common resident who would want to construct this on their own.

Prof Arun Isloor, an expert Membrane Technologist and his research group have been making use of this lockdown period for research that will help in controlling the spread of the coronavirus, which is the need of the hour. Very recently, they demonstrated the production of hand sanitizers as part of NITK’s community and social service activity. The sanitizers were distributed among the staff of NITK, police, media representatives as well as officials from the district administration.