Devices & Diagnostics, Hospitals

Medizone prototypes field hospital for Ebola threat

Medizone International shared further details of its 40-bed prototype field hospital that could help combat […]

Medizone International shared further details of its 40-bed prototype field hospital that could help combat the Ebola virus in the most affected West African countries by applying its AsepticSure device that has shown great success in disinfecting healthcare spaces.

Dr. Michael Shannon, president of San Francisco-based Medizone, said Doctors Without Borders approached the company about the idea of a prototype after a demonstration of AsepticSure, which uses a mist of ozone and hydrogen peroxide to kill 100 percent of all bacteria and viruses.

“It’s already done. It’s been submitted,” said Dr. Shannon, former manager of infectious disease control programs for the World Health Organization and ex-deputy surgeon general of Canada.

Doctors Without Borders, Medical Tent, which manufactures the actual structures, and the WHO are in the process of determining if and when it would use the prototype hospital. Dr. Shannon said the prototype hospital could be ready to be shipped within three to four weeks.

The goal of the prototype field hospital and Medizone’s efforts, Dr. Shannon said, is twofold – to relieve already over-burdened hospitals in the region and to establish better treatment areas to minimize the spread and impact of the virus. Proper disposal of Haz-Mat suits and sterilization of medical equipment is also a big part of the issue.

“The kinds of hospitals that they’re using over there now are pretty primitive, to be frank,” he said. “Just about everyone who shows up at the hospital is infected and the triage is not effective. The problem worsens though when you’re in communities were not everyone is infected, but instead just suspected. They could have been exposed but they’re not necessarily infected. You’ve got suspected cases mixed in with those that are infected.”

Medizone’s prototype hospital, in this instance, would probably consistent of several eight-bed wards that separate suspected versus infected.

“We’re suggesting alternative tents. One tent is kept sterile at all times. If the patients are kept sort of quasi-seperated in the tents, as soon as they get a negative test, they’re put into a clean tent, and hopefully stay that way.”

Proper disposal of Haz-Mat suits and sterilization of medical equipment is also a big part of the issue. Currently, it’s often that case that the protective gear for healthcare workers just gets thrown out. “We can clean them easily with our system,” Dr. Shannon said.

Central to the effort is the AsepticSure device, which was originally designed to disinfect acute-care hospitals of hospital-acquired infections like MRSA , MERS and Adenovirus, among others.

In addition to the prototype hospital, Medizone is looking to disinfect the scores of hospitals that have already seen Ebola patients.

“No one knows how to clean them,” Dr. Shannon said. “Within the space that has been contaminated , whatever has been used, you decontaminate everything at once. Now you’ve freed up that space for other patients, normal patients in a country that has very limited capacity for healthcare anyway. Take the Ebola cases away from the regular hospitals and into the mobile hospitals.”

The AsepticSure device, which retails for about $129,000, uses a mist of ozone and hydrogen peroxide to kill 100 percent of all bacteria and viruses.

Dr. Shannon stressed that Medizone isn’t seeking to profit from the use of its device.

“We’re not interested in making a profit if we can help,” he said.

The goal is to “provide a tool for the countries that are trying to contain and deal with an outbreak, which if they’re not successful with will impact the entire world,” he said. “This is a global problem.”

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