Review of Ultraviolet-C Light Against Coronavirus

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) is a new highly pathogenic virus that has induced the COVID-19 disease in over 27.6 million patients and caused over 900 thousand deaths around the world by September 8th, 2020, nine months after the first reported case in China, according to the World Health Organization. Through the realization of the research, it is implied that Ultraviolet-C (UVC) light is an efficient method for tackling the spread of coronavirus. This work comprises a systematic study of state-of-art scientific articles concerned with the application of UVC for tackling different viruses, including those from the coronavirus family and its impact on human health. While the most common germicidal wavelength, 254 nm, is harmful to humans, studies demonstrated the germicidal effect of the wavelength of 222 nm and indicated it could be safe to humans under certain exposure conditions. Also, different conditions of virus exposure to UVC light were considered and the UVC dose required for n-log reduction compared. Data from analyzed studies demonstrated that some factors such as temperature, incident wavelength, and virus family have been shown to be important to determine the inactivation dose.