Meet Saul, the Ebola-Zapping Robot

USAF Hospital Langley recently received a germ-zapping robot capable of killing off diseases, including Ebola. The 5 foot, 2 inch tall robot, nicknamed Saul, was delivered to the 633rd Medical Group, which returned this week from a mission in West Africa, by Xenex Healthcare as part of a response plan to ensure the unit is equipped to handle dangerous viruses like Ebola, according to a release. After patient and operation rooms are cleaned, Saul “uses pulses of high-intensity, high-energy ultraviolet rays 25,000 times brighter than fluorescent lights to split open bacterial cell walls and kill dangerous pathogens commonly found in hospital.” The robot has been tested on 22 microorganisms, and a Xenex representative told staff during a demonstration at Langley that the robot can kill a single strand of ribonucleic acid (a virus similar to Ebola) within five minutes with an efficiency rate of 99.9 percent. She said hospitals using the technology have slashed infection rates by up to 60 percent. The unit’s surgical team has already been tested on the technology and plans to begin using it to ward off infections immediately.