Aged care project investigating potential of UV light against COVID

A Flinders University study is exploring the effectiveness of ultraviolet light to reduce rates of respiratory viral infections in residential aged care facilities.

The study, which has received $1.4 million from the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund’s Clinical Trials Activity Initiative, aims to limit transmission of COVID-19 within residential aged care facilities.

Lead read researcher Professor Geraint Rogers said the study involves installing UV light sources into air conditioning units in several aged care facilities.

UV light can damage viral particles in the air, said Professor Rogers, director of Microbiome and Host Health research at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and Matthew Flinders Professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health.

“By fitting UV sources within air conditioning systems, the hope is that as viral particles pass through those systems, the UV will kill the virus,” Professor Rogers tells Australian Ageing Agenda.

“It would have to be retrofitted into facilities and every facility is different. In some places, residents have their own air conditioning systems in their rooms while  other places have ducted systems. So in each case, we’re going to have a slightly different strategy,” he said.

Professor Rogers said the study would look at other seasonal respiratory viruses that cause coughs, colds and the flu as a surrogate measure of COVID-19.

 Professor Rogers said the study aims to reduce the “devastating” impact a COVID outbreak can have in aged care as seen internationally and in Australia.

“To date, most of the measures that are in place to try to protect people in aged care are the standard measures we use across the healthcare system such as hand hygiene, social distancing and restricting where people can work,” he said.

“We hope to achieve an additional tool to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, and in doing so protect arguably the most vulnerable,” he said.

“If we can protect frail older people in residential aged care, then it is a strategy which might be appropriate elsewhere as well, such as for people who are in high dependency hospital units and people who have severely increased risks for poor outcomes with COVID-19.”

The study is going to use existing technology in a new way that can easily be rolled out to all facilities after the trial if its effective, Professor Rogers said.

“We wanted to develop something which could be added rapidly to the residential aged care system and wouldn’t place a burden on the staff or the residents and wouldn’t interfere with their normal daily practices or their lives,” he said.

 “Apart from having a requirement to use a little bit of electricity and some installation costs, there isn’t a particular downside to this technology.”

The two-year trial is expected to commence in July.

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