PARIS, March 17: Ultraviolet lights could reduce the spread of tuberculosis in hospitals and waiting rooms by up to 70 per cent, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Even dangerous drug-resistant strains of the disease were neutralised by the bluish light source, the study found.

Every year, over nine million people are infected with tuberculosis and nearly two million die, mainly in poor countries, according to the World Health Organisation. Infection rates are especially high in prisons, hospitals and shelters.

Sneezing or coughing sprays TB bacteria into the air in tiny droplets that can infect visitors, health care workers and other patients.

“When people are crowded together in a hospital waiting room, it may take just one cough to infect several vulnerable patients,” said Roderick Sercombe, a researcher at the Imperial College in London and lead author of the study.

UV lights are already used at high intensity to disinfect empty ambulances and operating theatres, noted the study. It was published in the online open access journal PLoS Medicine. TB strikes mainly in poor countries that lack resources to diagnose and rapidly treat patients.—AFP
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