- The virus destroying facemasks remain effective throughout six months of wearing and washing.
- The mask technology also has the ability to destroy higher loads of germs than those generated in one sneeze.
Image: HANDOUT
Livinguard, an environmental technology platform, has rolled out a face mask with technology that is alleged to kill viral infections.
The masks allegedly offer protection against viruses including Delta virus SARS COV-2 by 99.9 per cent.
The technology on the Livinguard mask attracts negatively charged germ cells and disrupts their outer walls.
Their contents spill out and the cells are rendered dead and harmless, at which point the charge is freed up to attract new germ cells.
This type of action ensures that no pathogen can mutate effectively to remain resistant to the Livinguard technology.
It has been vetted through testing against MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) and DR TB (drug-resistant tuberculosis).
“The new Livinguard mask is, for the first time, a preventative protection for the wearer, cutting off germs of every type.
"This is thanks to positive charges embedded in the mask that break the cell membranes of bacteria and viruses,” Livinguard vice-president sales and key accounts for the Middle East and Africa, Shivani Swamy said.
These virus-destroying facemasks remain effective throughout six months of wearing and washing.
They can go through multiple washes and replace an estimated 210 single-use facemasks by killing 9,999,999 germs in every 10 million.
The masking technology also has the ability to destroy higher loads of germs than those generated in one sneeze.
The radical new mask has been given accelerated approval as a medical mask by the European Union, with universities in Berlin, Germany and Tucson, Arizona.
The USA also confirmed that its self-sanitising fabric kills 99.9 per cent of Covid-19 pathogens.
The secretary-general, Association of Medical Engineering of Kenya, Millicent Alooh said that it is important to note that majority of this literature on killing viruses and bacteria has been given by the Livinguard company.
The department of Environmental science at the University of Arizona confirmed the technology permanently deactivated greater than 99.9 per cent of human coronavirus 229E.
This was supported by researchers from the Free University, Berlin, Germany at the Institute for Animal Hygiene and Environmental Health.
The researchers were able to demonstrate that textiles treated with Livinguard technology can deactivate 99.9 per cent of SARS COV-2.
Swamy said that the rollout of the Livinguard mask is a priority for their team as a way to offer an entirely new level of personal protection for healthcare workers and consumers.
Even as tests have been carried out in other countries, Alooh said the country can also engage scientists from different research labs like Kemri, KIRDI and UoN to subject the masks to testing before release to the Kenyan market.
Numerous studies have now shown that cotton and surgical masks become magnets for bacteria, creating new sources of infection, if not changed frequently.
Director of Milestones Neonatal and Pediatric consultants, Mustafa Sulemanji, is one of the senior medical officials using the mask.
He said the benefit of using it is to ensure sustainability and reduction of healthcare burden from the pandemic in our country.
Phillips Healthcare Technologies will be distributing the masks in Kenya.
They will be supplying the mask directly to hospitals and clinics. They have also partnered with pharmacy chains GoodLife and HealthyU to supply the mask directly to consumers.
"As for the medical devices vendors who are distributing the same in the country my opinion would be we get guidance from WHO and CDC on this masks, who have not given their findings in terms of safety and infection control related issues," Alooh said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)